Countries that are more environmentally conscious should take the initiative to gather this data to present to countries planning on implementing these dams. It should also be the countries' duty gathering their own accurate data. These groups should come together, along with environmentalists to review and scrutinize the consequences and benefits of these dams and revise it to benefit both humans and wildlife. Having other countries involved would result in a more unbiased review of the dams, considering the results of the dams on a global basis rather than just the countries the Mekong runs through. .
Another solution proposed was to use many of the other alternatives to large dams. One included planting a lot trees to hold rainwater back until the rainwater has a chance to sink into the ground where it can be accessed through wells. 7 Although this does seem very beneficial because of the usage of trees to further benefit the water resource it does not seem time effective. The number of trees that would be needed for the region as well as how large the agricultural sector is, this solution does not seem probable. In fact, for a tree to fully grow in a tropical rain forest is 30 years, and in colder climates could take hundreds of years.8 The problem of water scarcity is a large problem presently and we need solutions that will start to solve the problem as soon as possible. For example, in a short 50 years the Ogallala aquifer irrigation has went from 1.4 million hectares to 6.5 million hectares. 9 Another solution was to choose crops to grow that require less water. Farmers in the Mekong River mostly produce rice, as they produce enough rice to feed 300 million people per year.10 Although there can be other crops for these farmers to grow, it probably won't be very effective as their main crop is rice. A better solution would be to find less wasteful irrigation methods which leads to the next solution.
