• Mekong River Basin
• ©Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/
• ©Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/
• List of countries in basin: Cambodia, China, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam
• Basin size: 805,604 square kilometers
• Average population density: 71 people per square kilometers
• Annual flow of river: 9,001 cubic meters per second
• Main uses: The Mekong River is the largest river of mainland Southeast Asia. It provides multiple resources to tens of millions of people, including drinking and irrigation water, and is an important transportation artery. Additionally, the lower Mekong basin is one of the world’s most productive fisheries, and fish are the main source of animal protein to over half of the basin’s inhabitants. The basin accounts for half of Thailand’s arable land and provides approximately half of Vietnam’s rice production (in the Mekong River delta) and a third of its Gross Domestic Product. In the Mekong’s upper reaches, China has constructed the first hydropower dams on the river’s mainstem and has plans to construct several more.