VIENTIANE, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Thursday that the Mekong-basin organization is satisfied and benefited from the cooperation with China.

    Jeremy Bird, Chief Executive Officer of the MRC, told Xinhua during the MRC's Regional Multi-Stakeholder Consultation which is held on Sept. 25-27 in Lao capital Vientiane that during the past years, the MRC benefited from the cooperation with its Dialogue Partner China and he expects to enhance the ties for future Mekong development.

    Last month, China and the countries of the MRC have arranged to build on their existing relations by renewing an agreement to share data on flood season water flows in the Lancang-Mekong River. The agreement on provision of hydrological information was signed by the Ministry of Water Resources of China and the MRC.

    Known as the Lancang in China, the Lancang-Mekong River runs through China, Myanmar, the Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Natural flooding events during the monsoon season follow different patterns each year, meaning that accurate data on rainfall and water flows throughout the river basin are needed so that timely flood warnings can be delivered to people in areas likely to be affected.

    As a Dialogue Partner, China has since 2002 provided the MRC Secretariat with daily water level and rainfall data from two Lancang River hydrological stations at Yunjinghong and Man'an during the flood season from 15 June to 15 October each year.

    Bird said the information has improved the quality of flood forecasting for the Mekong River and played a significant role in reducing losses caused by floods in the MRC member countries of Cambodia, the Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

    Earlier, the MRC also said during an announcement that it was recognized that the data supplied during the recent flooding in the Laos and Thailand made an important contribution to preparations for emergency and relief work in the affected countries.

    "The current water levels are entirely the result of the meteorological and hydrological conditions and were not caused by the release of water from the Chinese dams, as their storage volume was far too small to affect the flood hydrology of the Mekong," said the statement. "These conditions resulted in high river levels than usual and were compounded by tropical storm Kammuri between Aug. 8-10."

    During the consultation on Thursday, Ph. D. Chen Guanfu, Senior Engineer of China Hydropower and Water Resources Planning and Design General Institute, also showed a series of data and concluded that the changes brought by dams along the Lancang riverhave limited impacts on the downstream flow patterns, because runoff volume of Lancang river covers only 13.5 percent of that of the Mekong river at the sea mouth.