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social structure and economic gains. Choice of engineering tasks and 

 careful timing were essential : 



Unlike countries with much larger income per capita, the Lower Mekong 

 countries cannot afford to build power and navigation projects yielding very 

 low returns or to carry out irrigation which has full effects upon agriculture 

 only two or three decades later. They cannot stand the luxury of monolithic con- 

 crete structures whose most immediate return is inflation of national ego. They 

 must husband available social resources so as to squeeze the maximum net 

 returns from their investment at the right time and the right place. 



The shopping list of investigations and research projects blocked 

 out by the Ford Foundation study would cost an estimated $15 mil- 

 lion and would require a much closer degree of supervision than the 

 staff of the Coordination Committee had previously provided. 



The specific limitations on rate of construction, according to the 

 report, were an increase in agricultural production of 3.5 to 4 percent 

 and an increase in industrial output of 6 to 7 percent. Savings avail- 

 able from the Riparian States to invest in construction projects and 

 related development would fall far short of the requirements en- 

 visioned in the engineering studies. 



To illustrate what was meant by priority and timing, the report 

 suggested that ". . . the first construction should be initiated on one 

 or more of the tributaries : they can provide essential experience with 

 ways of reaping an adequate harvest of benefits from investment in 

 water management. " This recommendation directly conflicted with 

 the views of the Coordination Committee which, from 1957 on, had 

 given priority to three very large projects on the main stem of the 

 Mekong : at Pa Mong, Tonle Sap, and Sambor. 



Action Programs on the Mekong, 1962-1965 



Dating from about the time of the Ford Foundation (White) 

 Report, the tempo of activity on the Mekong Project appears to have 

 speeded up. The number of participating countries increased. Dona- 

 tions and pledges of contributions to support the planning studies 

 rose from $20 million in March 1962 to $45 million by the end of the 

 calendar year 1963 and to $68 million a year later. For the most part, 

 these contributions were made in kind rather than in cash or credits. 

 They included donations of cement, technical services, measuring in- 

 struments, boats, computer time, and aerial survey. 



In 1964, a first geological map of the basin was completed. In 

 France, work was proceeding on a mathematical model of the river 

 while representatives from the Columbia River headquarters of the 

 U.S. Corps of Engineers were undertaking a system study of the 

 Mekong. Studies were underway by the World Health Organization 

 of the problems of malaria and schistosomiasis in the basin. Scores 

 of hydrologic and meteorologic stations had been set up and a radio 

 network linked them to headquarters in Bangkok, where their reports 

 were collected and tabulated. The Bureau of Reclamation was be- 

 ginning work on a feasibility study of the Pa Mong Dam. Stream 

 gradient measurements on the main stem had been completed in 

 1961 and measurement of the capacity of possible reservoirs was ac- 

 tively proceeding. In 1964 ECAFE completed an agricultural market 

 analysis. Resources for the Future, Inc., had begun a study of world 

 demand for products of electro-processing industries. A study of 



