The change of the water volume of the Mekong is not resulted from the hydropower projects on the upper part of the river in Southwest China, said the official from the Chinese Embassy in Thailand Thursday.

In a press conference held in the Chinese Embassy, Chen Dehai, the politics and press counselor, said, "The average annual runoff volume of the Lancang River (the Chinese name of Mekong's upper part in China) at the outbound point (of China) is approximately 64 billion cubic meters, accounting for only 13.5 percent of Mekong's runoff volume at the sea outlet."

Chen stressed that the reservoir area of the three existing hydropower stations on Lancang is small-scales and therefore the evaporation effect can be neglected; and the operation of these hydropower stations has little influence on water volume of lower reaches.

The counselor made the remarks as a response to the claim by some civil group that the dams in China lead to a reduction of the water flow of Mekong, the longest river in Southeast Asia.

"The press statement released by Mekong River Commission recently points out that the low water levels of mainstream of Mekong are the result of drought in the Northern Thailand and Lao, " said Chen.

The remarks made by Thailand's Natural Resource and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti days ago supported Chen's opinion. "It is difficult to blame China, as it shares only some 15 percent of the water flow. Water supply to the river from Thailand and Laos is more than half of the total," said Suwit.

In the press conference attended by dozens of reporters from both Thailand's and Bangkok-based foreign media, Chen pointed out that since the end of last year, the whole Mekong basin has experienced severe drought, with Southeast China being a victim, too.

"China's Yunnan Province is also suffering severe drought. The river levels in Southwest China have been at their lowest levels for the last 50 years, with water volume only half of the normal amount in Februarys in history," Chen said.

China has been taking into consideration the concerns of the countries in the lower reaches of Mekong while developing Lancang hydropower, said Chen, adding that China will never do things that harm the interests of the lower-Mekong-region countries.

In a related development, Kasemsun Chinnavaso, director-general of the Water Resources Department, said Tuesday that China had invited representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand - - member countries of the Mekong River Commission -- early this year to visit the Jinghong dam, one of the dams it operates along the Mekong River, but the trip was postponed due to cold weather.