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tive services to member nations, ECAFE in 1949 established a small 

 stall' organization, the Bureau of Flood Control, whose title was later 

 enlarged to Bureau of Flood Control and Water Resources Develop- 

 ment. Under its charter, the Bureau was instructed to advise and assist 

 governments in dealing with flood control and river problems; it was 

 also to maintain contact with the Food and Agriculture Organisation 

 and other specialized U.N. agencies dealing with problems related to 

 water. 



The next organizational step was the creation in 1957 by the four 

 Riparian Nations— in association with ECAFE — of a permanent 

 "Committee for Coordination of Investigations of the Lower Mekong," 

 to be referred to hereafter as the "Coordination Committee." The fol- 

 lowing year, the Committee agreed to the establishment by ECAFE 

 of a permanent Advisory Board of professional engineers, headed by 

 an Executive Agent. The four members of the Coordination Commit- 

 tee representing the Riparian Nations had plenipotentiary powers of 

 decision ; the Agent had authority for making decisions on a day-by- 

 day basis in the preparation of requests for technical and financial 

 assistance, program planning and supervision, and staff support of the 

 Coordination Committee. On this rather unusual and extemporized 

 foundation was erected the organization to plan and administer a re- 

 gional program covering three-quarters of the drainage basin of the 

 tenth largest river in the world, a region larger than France, w T ith 

 a population of perhaps 30 million.- How much the total invest- 

 ment in the project will be is a matter of sheer guessw T ork; under con- 

 ditions of political stability and soundly based economic growth in the 

 region, investment in reasonable cost/benefit terms could reach the tens 

 of billions of dollars. (The long range plan for the Basin currently 

 projects a level of investment of $12 billion over the next 30. years.) 

 What makes plausible the management of so large a program with so 

 miscellaneous an array of resources and authorities is that the project 

 has shown an adaptive capability for 15 years, has not committed itself 

 to an unmanageably large effort, has concentrated on laying a solid 

 data base for each effort, and appears willing to accept a deliberate 

 pace for the future. 



The relationship of the Mekong project to the United Nations is 

 viewed as a healthy and constructive one for the future. One analysis 

 suggests that it could serve as a prototype for such programs else- 

 where — 



International river basin development will undoubtedly be one of the major 

 means of accomplishing economic growth and social change in the next few 

 decades, especially in the developing countries. Most of the world's major rivers 

 are international rivers, and most flow through the developing countries. Ap- 



20 Population figures for the countries of Indochina are notoriously suspect. According 

 to tiie United Nations Demographic Year Book (New York: United Nations. 195S), pp. 

 95-97. the total population for the four countries in 1957 was ahout 40 million (Thailand 

 21 million, Vietnam 12.3, Cambodia 4.6, and Laos 1.7). An ECAFE study that same year 

 estimated the population of tile Basin at ahout 17 million. Other estimates run very much 

 higher. The most recent estimate gives: Thailand 37.4, South Vietnam is..",, Cambodia 4.6, 

 and Laos, 3.1, for a total of 66.1 million. North Vietnam, not included in tiiis total, was 

 estimated at 21.6 million. ("World Population Data Sheet." Washington, D.C. : Population 

 Reference Bureau, Inc., June 1971). The rate of increase of population in the region is 

 estimated at from two to three percent annually. Concentration of persons of child-hearing 

 age in urban areas will have considerable effect on future population growth. So will 

 public health measures. One theme that is constantly repeated in all the many studies of 

 the Lower Basin of the Mekong is the need for better data — demographic, economic, geo- 

 graphical, meteorological, and the like. 



