408 



3. Ecological Bench Mark Study ; 



4. Cadastral [land ownership] Survey of Vientiane Plain; 



5. Social Studies for Resettlement from Reservoir Area and for Irriga- 

 tion Farmer Organizations ; and 



6. Rural Electrification Feasibility Studies for Northeast Thailand and 

 Vientiane Plain in Laos." 62 



Statics of the Mekong Project at the Close of 1965 



Under the stimulus of the President's representative. Mr. Eugene 

 Black, the United Nations by the end of the calendar year 1965 was 

 giving increased attention to the Mekong as a priority project on its 

 agenda. At headquarters of the Coordination Committee, in Bangkok, 

 the program was substantially accelerated : an increase by $37.2 million 

 (to a total at year's end of $105 million) in grants to the project had 

 been achieved; 64 percent of the funds at hand were for construction, 

 with the rest for studies and "pre-investment" purposes. Prospects 

 were at last favorable for the early establishment of the Asian De- 

 velopment Bank. 



The Mekong project itself was also beginning to move. The first hy- 

 droelectric project in the S}'stem, the Xam Pung tributary dam in 

 Thailand, had been completed. Construction was under way in Laos 

 on two smaller dams, the Lower Se Done and the Nam Dong. The 

 World Bank had agreed to administer financing and construction of 

 the large Nam Ngum tributary dam in Laos and funding arrange- 

 ments had almost been completed dining the year. Design work had 

 been completed for a dam at Prek Thnot in Cambodia. The U.S. 

 Bureau of Reclamation was at work on cost/benefit studies and 

 analyses of the proposed main stem at Pa Mono-. A Japanese team was 

 at work on a feasibility study of another proposed main stem dam at 

 Sambor. And a complicated water project was under study by an In- 

 dian team at Toule Sap. (These last three had earlier been identified 

 by the Coordination Committee as the priority projects — although 

 also the most ambitious — in the entire Mekong Project.) 



An assessment of the state of the project in early 1966. with particu- 

 lar reference to the impact of the Johnson initiative, observed : 



The [Johns Hopkins] proposal immediately gave rise to a flurry of interest 

 throughout the Mekong Basin. Within two or three days, the Executive Agent 

 of the Mekong Committee [Mr. Hart Schaaf] had received calls and communi- 

 cations from representatives of the fonr governments and from representatives of 

 other governments that might participate in the proposed program. As a direct 

 result, a special meeting of the Mekong Committee was held in May 196H to 

 discuss ways and means of implementing the Mekong scheme. The meeting was 

 especially significant since it was attended, for the first time, by the Cambodian 

 I >i rector of External Finance. 



It is still unclear what would he the best type of mechanism for administering 

 the billion dollar program of aid. .Much can he done through the Mekong Com- 

 mittee, tint the program is intended to serve countries outside the .Mekong region 

 as well. Perhaps a solution to this problem can be provided by the Asian Devel- 

 opment Bank, which is expected to become operational in the autumn of 1966. 

 Meanwhile it is still uncertain what the long-run effects of the military opera- 

 tions in Vietnam will be on the Committee and its work. So far none of the 

 countries has withdrawn support, and the Committee has been able to continue its 

 coordinative role. 93 



" 2 "Pa Moim Stage line Feasibility Report." Bureau of Reclamation, 1-fi. 

 93 W. R. Derrick Sewell and Gilbert 1". White, "The Lower Mekong," \<. 63. 



