Funder factsheet
Generated 2026-11-03. Cited statistics only. MVP preview, not for operational decisions.
Why it matters
- Nearly 65 million people live in the Lower Mekong Basin; an estimated 80% depend on the river and its resources for their livelihoods. (Mekong River Commission, 'Mekong River Basin')
- About 40% of the Lower Mekong Basin's people live within 15 km of the Mekong mainstream. (Mekong River Commission, 'People')
- The Mekong's annual fish catch is about 2.3 million tonnes; MRC values Lower Basin capture fisheries at around USD 11 billion a year. (Mekong River Commission, 'Fisheries Monitoring')
- Fish provides 81% of protein intake in Cambodia and 48% in Lao PDR. (Mekong River Commission, 'Fisheries Monitoring')
What we monitor today
- 5 Lancang dams tracked by our own Sentinel-1 radar water-area series (2017-01 to 2026-10; 590 reservoir-months) (River Monitor data files (MRC public gauge data; our own Sentinel-1 radar processing))
- 8 MRC mainstem gauges tracked daily; 88,055 gauge-days of public MRC data (Mekong River Commission public gauge data (PMFM), counted by River Monitor)
- 7 of 8 gauges below their 10th percentile for the date (gauge data as of 2026-10-31) (MRC gauge data; River Monitor percentiles vs 2006–2025)
- 10 downstream towns with estimated travel times; 60 monthly dam reports (River Monitor data files (MRC public gauge data; our own Sentinel-1 radar processing))
Honest validation
| Test | Result | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly dam drop signals vs Chiang Saen rises | precision 0.57, recall 0.36; chance 0.55 | No skill above chance yet |
| Daily release-pulse travel to downstream towns (held-out 2018–2026) | 54 held-out pulses; validated towns: 0 of 6 | Experimental: no town beat persistence |
Reservoir water area is not storage volume. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data; river gauge data from the Mekong River Commission.