Myanmar–Thailand Joint Border Committee formed to address river navigation and water use
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Htet Nadi (NP News) - Dec 2
The Myanmar Gazette states that a Myanmar-Thailand Joint Border Committee has been formed to deal with river navigation and river water utilization, including the border measurement.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs will serve as the chairman of the committee, and the Director of the Border Division of the Consular and Legal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will serve as the secretary.
The committee will be composed of 17 members, including the Myanmar Ambassador to Thailand, the Commander of the Navy Main Survey Corps from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ministry of Defense, and the Director-General of the General Administration Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The Myanmar-Thailand Joint Border Committee is responsible for finding ways to reach a bilateral agreement on the demarcation of the Myanmar-Thailand border, the use of river water, and navigation in the river, for establishing procedures to be followed for the above matters based on the consultation with the Thai delegation, and accomplishing the tasks required to reach a bilateral agreement on these matters.
The formation of the committee comes amid recent concerns about rising arsenic levels in the Thanlwin River on the Myanmar-Thailand border.
Thai authorities have banned the consumption of Thanlwin River water and fish from the river after tests conducted by Chiang Mai University's Environmental Science Research Institute found dangerous levels of arsenic in the water near Mae Sariang in Mae Hong Son Province, according to Thai news reports.
Therefore, environmental experts point out that Myanmar should immediately conduct an inspection of the water quality of the Thanlwin River.