Talk:Mekong/Archive 1

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 3 February 2020 and 24 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Smoua00.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 03:49, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Pollution section.. is Missing
...is clearly missing. Has anybody something on that topic? Paranoid Android1208 (talk) 17:18, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Article is not neutral, compromised, repeatedly vandalized by commercial interests, like basa fish raising in this contaminated river. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.142.188.110 (talk) 06:31, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Human population; culture, lifestyle, condition and challenges, development ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.15.43.173 (talk) 17:24, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

Expansion
Part one of some expansion; probably more to come. Markalexander100 16:53, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Some Vandalism
I tried to change back some vandalism, but I'm not sure of the exact original parts. If someone could revert it, it's be appreciated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.39.125.106 (talk) 00:19, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

Depth
I doubt that the Mekong is really 100 m deep - are you really sure about that number? Or is it just a typo and should mean 10 m? BTW: I am currently reading that book you listed on "further reading" of that article, we'd need much more such book recommendations at our articles. andy 15:24, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Yes, the figure's right: From the region of Vientiane to the Kampuchean border, the river is turbid, particularly during the rainy season when bank erosion is at its most severe. Suspended lateritic soil gives the water an apparent rusty-tan colour. River temperatures fluctuate between 21.1°C and 27.8°C, and the pH varies from 6.2 to 6.5. The mainstream habitats range from sandy-gravel bars to deep pools up to 100m deep and several kilometres long, interspersed with rocky rapids (Pantulu, 1986a) .Markalexander100 00:44, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Meaning of the name
Does anyone have a reputable source for the meaning of the name Mekong? All my initial googling turned up was a discussion board thread, which seemed to be carrying a lot of nationalist baggage. Mark1 04:18, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * I don't think there's any reputable source online that doesn't seem nationalistic, so are dictionaries reputable enough? In Thai, Khmer, and Lao, Mé means mother and Kong (also Kongka or Kongkea) refers to the Ganges (also Ganga), but it can also mean river. Just look in the dictionary of all three languages and you will find it. --Dara 02:21, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * It pronouce Mea in Khmer, which means master instead of mother and the native thai and lao word for river is Kong while in Khmer, its Thonle. I'm guessing that it comes from Thai or Lao, but it could have come from old Mon Me Krung, which means mother river.  Most mainland southeast asian words for river comes from mon-khmer, ex ancient Khmer Krongle.  Its very disputable  CanCanDuo 00:21, 12 February 2007 (UTC)


 * In fact of the history "Mekong" is the original language of Khmer empire ( Cambodia), but not thai or Lao or Vietnamese. In Khmer " Mekong" compsoses of two meaning words "Me+Kong" " Me=Mae= Mother" and " Kong= Kongkea= Ganga (Sanskrit language)= water". Khmer people actually use the word " Me" as the prefix before other words-

(eg:" Me+kong"= the mother of the water, "Me+ Toap"= the head of commander," Me+Srok" Chief of district,"Me + theavy"= lawyer.....) to symbolize our first Queen" Soama" who ruled and led the country at the first origin of the Khmer, and also appreciate the women who are the mother of the peaceful world." Mekong" river is the great source of water for Khmer empire's livelihood( agricultural production, fishery, navigation,transportation,communication and culture...). for this reason, the Khmer empire named the river " Mekong" as a great Mother of water. Nowday, Khmer people stay call the river as " Mekong". The history as The fact. Should learn more about Khmer history! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.75.89.195 (talk) 15:51, 28 March 2011 (UTC)
 * OK, this snide remark is over 10 years old, but maybe Better-Than-Everybody-Else will still happen to see this. How much do you know about Polish history?  How about Sorbian history?  Aymara history?  Throw a dart at a map of Australia or New Guinea; see who the particular indigenous people are at that spot, and tell me their history!  People come here to find things out, and it should be in the article (and even now, it could be a lot better).  Nobody knows everything.  I think it was Will Rogers who said, everybody is ignorant--just in different subjects. Uporządnicki (talk) 13:05, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

Average Discharge
I was wondering if anyone could figure out a precise figure of the average discharge of the Mekong in cubic meters per second. That figure is available for most of the other articles in Wikipedia that deal with major rivers, but it's not available for this one. We have the figure for annual discharge in cubic kilometers, but that's it. Giskard mb 09:02, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
 * List of rivers by length lists 16,000 m³/s.Kmusser 13:37, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Not sure if a precise figure of the river's average discharge would be all that helpful, since it would hinge crucially on the place where you measure it (mouth of the river versus upstream) and the time of year (the Mekong is highly seasonal, with enormous differences in discharge between the dry season--Nov to May--and the rainy season--June to October). In fact, one of the Mekong's defining characteristics, and what makes its fish production so impressive (some estimates place this at over 1 million metric tons per year), is its seasonality. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chris sneddon (talk • contribs) 16:07, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

I made a small grammar fix--"is comprised of" to "comprises"
In the statement describing the area where people depend on the river, I changed "...is comprised of Yunnan Province in China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Camdodia, and Vietnam," to "...comprises Yunnan Province in China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Camdodia, and Vietnam." A thing is not comprised of the parts that make it up; it comprises those parts. 72.66.108.162 23:26, 30 June 2007 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza

Contradiction with another article
This articles states that the Mekong river is the 10th longest in the world but the Lena River article also states that the Lena River is the 10th longest in the world. This article states that the Mekong river is 4350 kilometers long while the Lena River article states that the Lena River is 4400 kilometers. Are both rivers considered the 10th longest because the difference in their lengths is so small, or is this a mistake? Rajrajmarley 03:03, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
 * It's because every "list of rivers" that you find will put them in a different order, I'm sure they're both 10th on different lists, we should probably use our own list which puts the Mekong at 11th in distance and 12th in volume.Kmusser 13:03, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Ok, once there's some common point of reference I guess it's fine. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rajrajmarley (talk • contribs) 19:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Now this article says it's twelfth long and it's longer than the Mackenzie in Canada which puts it at 11th. What?? (anon) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.52.3.79 (talk) 15:36, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Mékôngk
Can somebody please verify the Khmer language pronunciation of "Mekong"? I doubt that "Mékôngk" (with a "K"?) is the corret one. --hdamm (talk) 14:11, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
 * The last two characters in the name in Khmer script correspond to ŋ and k, respectively. I'm not sure if some pronounciation rules apply, though. Something like "the k at the end of a word is always silent" or similar. Khmer speaker anybody? AchromatReader (talk) 20:22, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
 * The extra K is just an oddity in the Khmer spelling for the name of the Mekong river, it's not actually pronounced. I added IPA alongside the UNGEGN romanization for clarification. - Io Katai (talk) 22:01, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It's using a romanization scheme (UNEGN) in line with other Cambodian geographical names, which includes the transcription of unpronounced letters. Kong is based on the word Ganga. And in Khmer, the spelling of Ganga is preserved as such, when transliterated letter for letter, it is Kongk, even though it is pronounced like "kong." See Romanization of Khmer... --Dara (talk) 19:51, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Mekong as a geographical area
The word Mekong can also be used without the article "the" in a manner similar to a country name. An example of this usage is

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20101029-300419/Senior-Mekong-officials-to-hear-youth-recommendations-to-curb-human-trafficking.

Another reference is

http://www.mekongyouthforum.com/

This reference defines the six Mekong countries as Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

I'm not sure how to incorporate this in the article. 3dimen (talk) 03:47, 30 October 2010 (UTC)

English 'Mekong' is probably not derived from Thai, but French
I've been looking back in the history of this article and it's funny to see how the original statement evolved to say that it was derived from Thai 'Mae Nam Khong.' I believe it was the French who popularized the romanization 'Mekong' in their books and publications from the 19th century. It was from there that English picked it up (my guess). I have strong opinion that the romanization of Mekong is based on the Cambodian name (Me: Mother, Kong(k): Ganga), not the Thai name. (The romanization of Me is also seen in the names of teh East and West Mebon, whereas this word is romanized from Thai as 'Mae.' Another thing to consider; at the time the French arrived to Indochina, the Mekong delta was still largely populated by Cambodians (it was eventually annexed by the Vietnamese though). This illustrates that it would make more sense for the French to use the Cambodian name, rather than the Thai name. --Dara (talk) 07:43, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Kong
Some Chinese scholar suggested that Kong and Chinese name for river Jiang/江 are cognates, for example Changjiang, Xiangjiang, Zhujiang, etc. found in south of China, while north of China use He/河 for river.--刻意(Kèyì) 01:15, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

cooperation on use of the river after the Vietnam war
The last sentence of the History section says that tensions between Thailand and the other nations containing the Mekong prevented cooperation. It seems to me that other factors would have contributed as well: The inward turn of Cambodia during Khmer Rouge rule, hostility between Cambodia and Vietnam (including war) and hostility between Vietnam and China (including wars) are examples that come to mind.--Wikimedes (talk) 14:42, 27 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I removed the sentence. It was unreferenced and isn't believable as the main cause for lack of cooperation.--Wikimedes (talk) 21:17, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Added details on the delta
I just wrote something on the details of the delta--the nine dragons/nine channels to the sea. I did provide a source; I'm not sure how good it is. If someone wants to improve the sourcing, or to improve or correct what I wrote, I'd be most interested in seeing the result. 140.147.236.195 (talk) 20:54, 22 February 2012 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza

Length
Changed the length of the Mekong to match Wikipedia's own list of lengths. Also, corrected its place on the list, from 10th - 12th.TheKurgan (talk) 15:41, 2 March 2012 (UTC)
 * SOMEBODY, an IP user, keeps changing the length to 5 miles. It's been reverted three or four times in the past day or two.  (BTW, I'm the person who, as an IP User, added the details on the delta; I'm now officially a registered Wikipedian.)  Uporządnicki (talk) 13:17, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Name?
Is wikipedia really the place to show off your knowledge of non-roman characters? It would be so useful to know this river is named in other languages, but I can't read the characters. The purpose of an encyclopedia is to provide access to the uninitiated.74.96.16.59 (talk) 02:40, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * It's very common in Wikipedia that such names and terms are presented in scripts other than Roman. And I think it's quite appropriate.  You point out that you can read them; some Users might be reading computers not equipped to display them.  But then there are others who CAN view them and CAN read them.  And these names are the facts--the raw data, as it were.  So I think they're relevant.
 * What happens in many cases is, after the name is presented, it is rendered phonetically. I, for one, don't always know what to make of those--but for those who do, it's informative. Of course, one might argue that with the non-Roman names there should always be the phonetic symbols.  But that requires that someone who 1) knows what the original script says, and 2) knows how to render it phonetically sits down and does it. Uporządnicki (talk) 14:32, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
 * OK, after writing all that, I do see that someone (ones?) HAS provided phonetic transcriptions. Uporządnicki (talk) 14:36, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Beginning of the delta--and details
I'm kind of disappointed that after I added details on the delta, someone removed most of it as "superfluity." I had come to this article in the first place to try and find details on the delta; I wondered particularly about the nine mouths refered to as the "Nine Dragons," the Vietnamese name. When it wasn't here, I found it elsewhere and added it here. After doing that, I also noted that some of the more important distributaries do have (stub) articles in Wikipedia. But there's nothing here to direct the reader to those.

But I'm not going to get into a reversion war. I looked around at other articles about specific river deltas, and I do notice that they do not commonly list every distributary and mouth. And as I actually did note in my contribution now removed, those details do change; I acknowledged that the mouths as I listed them are mouths that have been, and some are more or less silted in.

HOWEVER, I think I can make some changes, if only because the edited info is wrong. It is not correct that "When it reaches Phnom Penh the river branches into the Tonle Sap River, and the Bassac River. This point is considered the upper-most part of Mekong Delta." And it's more than just the fact--noted in the article earlier--that it is not properly the "Tonle Sap River," it's either the "Sap River" or the "Tonle Sap. But in any case, that's not how the delta begins.

The article on the Nile delta does give the main two distributaries, east and west, of that river; I think I'll provide the north and south ones here. And I think it's quite appropriate to add their Vietnamese names. Uporządnicki (talk) 20:48, 26 April 2012 (UTC)
 * OK, I've done it. It's not correct that the Tonle Sap branches off the Mekong to form the beginning of the delta; the Tonle Sap is a tributary, just before the delta begins (the delta begins where the Bassac branches off); I've fixed that.  I also put back the names in Vietnamese (most of the Bassac IS in Vietnam), and added SOME of the information on distributaries.  I resisted the temptation to put back the information on the--admittedly rather ephemeral--nine mouths.  Uporządnicki (talk) 21:23, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Burma or Myanmar
Someone has just changed one instance of the name Burma to Myanmar here; specifically, someone changed it in the Infobox. Well, that's prompted me to notice that for several revisions now, the names Burma and Myanmar have been used interchangeably through the article, with no indication that they are the same place. We should decide on one and use it consistently. Perhaps then, we might follow that name with the other in parentheses JUST ONCE at the first instance. Also, in the Infobox, when the name Burma was used, the countries were listed alphabetically. Now, with the name Myanmar they are not--and they are in no other particular order. I think they should be listed either alphabetically, or according to actual river course, from China to Vietnam. If we stick with Myanmar, then we should rearrange the list. Uporządnicki (talk) 11:47, 9 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I looked up Burma, and I'm not really clear on a "correct" name. Wikipedia seems to favor Burma over Myanmar (among other things, the main article is "Burma"), and says that that's usual in English speaking countries.  So by way of compromise, I've gone through this article and changed every instance of "Burma" and "Myanmar" to "Burma (Myanmar)."  But I'm not sure I like it; it's a bit cumbersome.  And of course, my "solution" could be seen as giving priority to "Burma" over "Myanmar."  I suppose one could alternate "Burma (Myanmar)" with "Myanmar (Burma)."  But then, there would still be the first instance.  Uporządnicki (talk) 12:04, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Bridges
I'm trying to tidy--and bring up to date--the section on bridges. Can anybody make sense of these two sentences: "There are only three bridges, located in Champasak Province, in Laos. Unlike the Friendship bridges, this bridge is not a border crossing."? After referring to "only" three bridges, it then discusses one--apparently, the only--bridge. Uporządnicki (talk) 14:28, 24 June 2012 (UTC)


 * There is a bridge at oak beng in laos 115.84.91.197 (talk) 14:42, 16 April 2023 (UTC)

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Length, and position in league table
List of longest rivers of Asia puts the Mekong at number 3; this is a rather large discrepancy from the (sourced) "seventh longest" given in this article. Can anyone see what is going on? Imaginatorium (talk) 08:09, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
 * What's odd about that is, the source cited for its being 7th longest in Asia and 12th longest in the world (this article) suggests that it's actually the 6th longest in Asia and the 10th longest in the world. It doesn't give those numbers explicitly.  But it has the Mekong last on the list of the 10 longest in the world.  And the list indicates where thy are; it's the 6th listed that is in Asia. Uporządnicki (talk) 14:34, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
 * It seems that the precise length of Mekong is still not determined yet, and estimates range from 4000 km to 4900 km. The article entirely left this out. Esiymbro (talk) 05:28, 11 December 2019 (UTC)
 * That's probably true of a lot of rivers. Elsewhere in Wikipedia one can read that, while we all learned in school that the Nile is the longest river in the world, it is actually not certain whether the Nile or the Amazon is longer; apparently that stems from uncertainty about where the Amazon begins (or something like that).  One could annotate any table like this, for every river concerned.  But that might be a bit much. It's probably best just to be clear on the particular data source.  Uporządnicki (talk) 12:36, 15 December 2019 (UTC)

Name: Mekong vs Mekong River
I'm not sure why this article wasn't called the Mekong River in the first place, as per the redirect and the name in the infobox - can anyone offer a reason why not? Else I'll request a technical move. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 09:33, 6 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Articles about rivers don't follow a single naming convention; neither the Yangtze, Rhine nor Nile articles, for example, include "River" in their titles. The Mekong is often referred to as such in sources, probably more so than "Mekong River" (I haven't done a thorough check). Redirects from variant formats should be included either way; that's the point of their existence. As for the infobox, the simple inclusion or omission of "River" should be commonsensical enough not to confuse the reader, and it should not be necessary to list both forms, as in your latest edit. I wouldn't be bothered if "River" was removed from the name in the infobox, though I don't see it as a huge issue either way. --Paul_012 (talk) 23:51, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Cambodia not mentioned on the map
In the map entitled “ Mekong River watershed”, all countries in the area are mentioned except Cambodia. Is there a reason for that? Robin.lemstra (talk) 18:30, 11 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Pinging map creator User:Shannon1. --Paul_012 (talk) 02:51, 15 September 2020 (UTC)
 * That is an error, I'll fix that ASAP. Shannon [ Talk ] 02:45, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

Section on name sort of running out of control
The discussion of the origin of the name Mekong has been getting a little garbled with little edits over time. To begin with the most recent--from an IP user--something was added, and then removed for lack of reference. Then the IP user added it, with the comment that s/he was re-adding it with due reference. Unfortunately, the reference seems to be a personal blog, and frankly doesn't look very reliable. THEN, back in 2016, something was added with a reference. But the footnote simply says "Baxter-Sagart," and nothing more. And then and since, that has been the only mention of Baxter-Sagart on the page. That's very unhelpful. A quick Google suggests to me that maybe this Baxter-Sagart is a standard reference, familiar to all specialists. But we have to write this for the non-specialist. Uporządnicki (talk) 12:59, 13 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Any attribution to the Ganges via Thai is absolute rubbish, as the words are totally different in those pronunciations. I can't say about Khmer, which appears in earlier versions. --Paul_012 (talk) 18:51, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 17:08, 27 October 2021 (UTC)
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Length: intro versus sidebar?
At present, the introduction states: "with an estimated length of 4,909 km (3,050 mi)" citing this source from 2009. This closely matches the estimate of 4,900 kilometres from the Mekong River Commission.

Yet the sidebar says "Length 4,350 km (2,700 mi)", which aligns with Encyclopedia Britannica's estimation (although the original article for that is from 1999).

Obviously it's difficult to estimate the length of a river, but does it not make sense to have consistency between the introduction and the sidebar at least? 82.111.231.2 (talk) 09:06, 26 May 2023 (UTC)