Monday January 19, 2026
The Irrawaddy —
Across mainland Southeast Asia, the fates of the mighty Salween and Mekong rivers are increasingly inseparable from the forces of regional geopolitics, global demand for strategic minerals and the shadowy world of resource extraction. For all the passionate advocacy around protecting these international waterways from toxic contamination, the odds are stacked against meaningful accountability and environmental stewardship as it increasingly resembles an uphill battle—if not a losing game. At the heart of this dilemma lies an uncomfortable reality: pollution is not accidental, and accountability is structurally misaligned with the interests of powerful states.
In regions upstream of the Mekong and Salween, from Myanmar’s Shan and Kachin states to parts of Laos, a proliferation of rare earth and other mineral extraction sites, many tied economically to Chinese firms or supply chains, has unleashed toxic runoff into tributaries. Once released into upstream watersheds, it flows downstream into ecosystems and communities that had no say in the extraction decisions that produced it. The headwaters of the Kok, Sai, Ruak and Salween tributaries are now linked to elevated arsenic levels downstream. Testing conducted by Thai authorities found arsenic above safe limits at multiple points along the Kok, Sai and Salween rivers, with concentrations exceeding health standards by many times. The Mekong River Commission (MRC) has similarly classified contamination in the upper Mekong as “moderately serious,” prompting talks on joint monitoring.