Climate change and water resources: legal issues and concerns in South East Asia

Abstract

Water resources are essential to the livelihood and humankinds. Well-protected water resources secure the quantity, quality and accessibility of fresh water. The potential conflicts on runoff usage of Mekong River grab many attentions and lead various researches and studies on water supply management. The investigations on other water resources were ignored and lack of scientific database for further analysis. The industrialized countries and international institutions shall provide more assistants to explore and investigate the water resources in this region, except the surface waters. Climate change is a potential threat and will cause adverse effects on water resources in this area. Although the Southeast Asia region has abundant water resources and does not face water shortage challenges yet, the governments shall adopt precautionary principle to prepare early actions to prevent water decrease or regional conflicts. The Southeast Asia countries shall also consider the water resources as common goods for all mankind in this region and the safe and secured water resources are common benefits of the citizens in this area. Therefore, the governments shall protect the water resources in this region but sharing the responsibilities by "common but differentiated responsibilities" principle.