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In early December 2003, I crossed the Mekong River for the fourth time in the Chinese city of Jinghong, heading for its newly established international port. A few ships were anchored there. The water level of the Mekong was so low that I could see shoals and reefs. There was no vigorous activity at the port: A few trucks filled with goods were parked still, and their crew members were playing cards, huddled in circles. The dams upstream had not yet released water, I was told, and so the water level was not high enough to allow the ships' crew to navigate downstream. Thus, no ships were sailing that day. I was disappointed even more to learn that there was no certainty as to when the dams would release water.

As I intended to travel along the river by cargo ship, I went back to the port the next day to see whether I could start my journey down the Mekong.

The first joint investigation into the improvement of waterway transportation on the Upper Mekong was done by four countries — China, Burma, Thailand and Laos — in 1993, and they put in place the Commercial Navigation Agreement in 2000. It is aimed at allowing boats of the contracting countries to sail freely along the waterway - 886.1 kilometres between Simao port in China and the port of Luang Prabang in Laos.

However, there are also more than 100 shoals and reefs, of which 11 major reefs and 10 scattered ones seriously threaten the vessels' safe navigation, especially during the dry season. Under the Navigation Channel Improvement Project, along with other navigation regulations, these reefs have been targeted for removal so that ships can sail safely in any season.

It has taken the last two dry seasons to get the job done — except for the 2002 suspension of the blasting of the Kon Phi Luang reef on the Thai-Lao border between Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong districts.

A Thai official involved in the project once said: "When the project is finished, we wouldn't need any specific navigation knowledge that Chinese skippers solely have. We'll be going up faster and will be more capable of competing. Agricultural goods such as frozen chicken will become easier to transport upstream. People eat chicken the whole year round, not just in the wet season."

The project sounds like quite an accomplishment, since the Mekong River had never been navigable for such a long distance and during all seasons. People are talking about new economic opportunities that easier navigation would bring, such as freer trade. Yet questions linger about the effect of these changes on local ways of life, local economies and river environments in the region.

After three days of waiting for a chance to cruise down the Mekong river from Jinghong, I finally boarded a cargo ship ready to depart for Guanlei and load cargo there. I was told that Simao, supposed to be the starting point of this navigation scheme, does not yet play that role because ships cannot reach there as yet reach. Instead, ships load goods at Jinghong international port.

Late afternoon, the cargo ship slowly moved away from port. Meantime, while waiting to start this journey in the last three days, I found myself thinking that the crucial factors in navigation along the Mekong River may not be those reefs - whose blasting had gotten a lot of media attention - after all.

I looked down the river. The waves rippled toward the shore, hitting it repeatedly each time a ship went past. The Mekong communities' journey along the Mekong — amid the new waves — had already begun. This story would come into focus through my viewfinder.

*****

On the banks of the Mekong River in Laos, where my assignment ended, I took in the sight of children jumping into the water. Nearby, other youngsters held small nets in their hands, looking to catch small shrimps. A little girl, holding a bucket of water, was walking home. Not too far off, a mother was taking a bath in the Mekong with her children.

These are peaceful scenes seen everyday in Luang Prabang, through which the Mekong runs through in northern Laos.

After completing my travel along the Mekong River, I have learned many things.

I have seen the triumph on the faces of men who could control nature, the new economic opportunities that some believe can bring them prosperity, how local traders enjoy capitalism, free market and tourism. But I have also seen how a native fisherman suffers from these changes, locals who cannot cope with these new trends that affect their daily lives, and some who do not even know that there is dam construction and blasting of reefs upstream.

If someone asks me, "Do you agree with this Navigation Channel Improvement Project?" I can only say, "I have no idea". The benefits and losses from this project are too complicated to be understood easily. We may not be able to grasp the fine print in why governments went ahead with the navigation accord. But I now believe one thing - that surely, there must be other choices if we want to move ahead in the region.

Nowadays, Chinese cargo ships cannot yet reach Luang Prabang under changes set under the navigation agreement. But Chinese goods are already everywhere in the local markets. They are coming through roads, which are being developed further in order to connect the Indochinese countries and China. When those corridors are completed, we may find that in comparison to this, the exploitation of the Mekong River through the navigation accord is nothing.

At sunset, Lao children were still playing on the sandy banks of the Mekong. I shot one last frame for the day: a picture of people laughing noisily, the water carrying their hearty laughter over the distance.