390 



manpower needs and resources was begun in 1962, with the Inter- 

 national Labor Office as lead agency. The Food and Agriculture 

 Organization of the United Nations, and Israel, were studying agri- 

 cultural improvement methods; plans were underway for farm and 

 timber demonstration projects. 



The foregoing sampling of activities illustrates the stepped-up 

 pace of the Mekong investigations. It also shows that the character of 

 the investigations had changed markedly since the inception of the 

 project. Xot only was the scope of pertinent data recognized as far 

 wider than it had been in the 1950s, but primary emphasis was shifting 

 to the economic and social consequences of proposed constructions and 

 development. In the United States, river basin development had 

 followed this trend, but the conversion to total system planning had 

 taken more than a century; benefitting from U.S. experience, the 

 Mekong planning activity had achieved it in less than a decade. 



Status of the Mekong Project in the Spring of 1965 



By the time of President Johnson's proposal for a billion dollar 

 aid program featuring the Mekong regional plan, an elaborate complex 

 of countries and United Nations agencies were actively pursuing proj- 

 ects under the rubric of the Mekong Lower Basin Scheme. The center 

 of the activity was the Coordination Committee, its staff and Execu- 

 tive Agent — whose technical and administrative resources were also 

 expanding. Twenty-one countries, 31 12 U.N. agencies, and 7 private 

 institutions were contributors; donations and pledges by the end of 

 1965 were to reach $68 million. 



On the Tonle Sap feature of the project, France, India, and New 

 Zealand were preparing preliminary plans. For the Sambor dam, a 

 Japanese team was at work. On the large construction at Pa Mong, 

 the United States was taking the lead ($2.5 million in feasibility 

 studies). Australia had a half-million-dollar program of geologic 

 studies underway at both Sambor and Pa Mong dam sites. 



Significantly, construction was at last underway on some of the civil 

 works on tributary streams: dams at Prek Thnot (Cambodia), Lower 

 Se Done and Nam Dong (Laos), and Nam Pong and Nam Pung 

 (Thailand), plus channel marking and barges for river transporta- 

 tion. By the latter part of 1965, construction costs exceeded $40 mil- 

 lion, as against some $27 million for "pre-investment" studies. The 

 Nam Pong dam, a multipurpose structure (24,900 kw; $28.4 million) 

 and the Nam Pung (also multipurpose — 7,000 kw; $5 million) were 

 Hearing completion. Ground had been broken for the Nam Dong dam 

 (1,000 kw; $6 million) and the Prek Thnot dam (18,000 kw; $54 mil- 

 lion). The proposed Nam Ngum dam in Laos (120,000 kw ; $40 million ; 

 5,()oo In. tares of land irrigated) had been judged economically feasi- 

 ble. Work had started on the Lower Se Done dam (1,400 kw; $1.2 



31 The following 21 countries were working In cooperation with the Mekong Committee 

 (which represented Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Republic of Vietnam) as of March 1965: 

 Australia, Canada, India, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, United Kingdom and United States 

 (through the Colombo Plan) ; and Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, France. Federal Re- 

 public m' Germany, Iran, Italy. Israel. Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Philippines. The 

 United Nations agencies "r units supporting the Mekong Committee were: ECAFE, UN 

 special Fund, in Technical Assistance Board, I'N Bureau of Technical Assistance opera- 

 tions, ILO, FAO. UNESCO, World Health Organization, World Meteorological Organization, 

 International Atomic Energy Agency, International Bank for Reconstruction and Develop- 

 ment, and World Food Program, 



