I was in Northern Thailand with a group of young people and staff from ActionAid Thailand to see the latest threat to the rural communities that line the banks of the river - FTA - or in laymans terms a 'Free Trade Agreement.' In this case with China.

FTAs are legally binding agreements between 2 countries which are basically about opening up international borders for trade. This can mean that tariffs placed on exports and imports are abolished. It can also mean that foreign businesses can set up shop and also mean the free movement of labour between countries

The Thailand China FTA is a bit of mystery. When the agreement was signed in Oct 2003 no one knew what an FTA was or what effect it would have. The exact details of the agreement is been kept very quiet by the Thai government making the whole process very un-transparent to the communities of people it will affect the most.

Further up the hill next to a Buddhist temple we sat down and talked to Mr. Niti from the group 'We love Chiangsan' (one of the villages that border the river). It was a very surreal moment for me. Sat in a temple deep in a wood with the smell of incense listening to a man talk so passionately about a river and the affect it was having on his community. I wondered if there was anyone who felt that passionate about the Thames!

I learnt that for the communities living along the Mekong River trade has been the biggest source of income. For farmers and fishermen the river has been a cheap means of transporting goods between villages as well as a means to irrigate crops, and provide food but life has been changing fast for these communities.

The Mekong River is the 12^th largest in the world and runs from Tibet through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

But now it is in danger of being changed for ever by the Chinese (amongst other countries), looking to open up the river to bigger boats able to transport huge amounts of goods from China into many countries including Thailand.

Villagers living along the river have seen a big increase in Chinese ships bringing cheap goods such as textiles, toys and household goods, but the biggest threat to the rural way of life has been the import of stable food stuffs such as garlic and onions. Thai farmers are struggling to compete with these cheap imports with many turning their back on farming to provide cheap manual labour to carry goods on and off ships.

The Chinese have also built a series of dams along the river in China which has seen the water levels significantly drop in Thailand. The result has seen the river bank collapsing making it more difficult for fisherman, while fish stocks have decreased as the flow of water speeds up.

The latest in this long line of issues for communities has been the proposed blasting of rocks along the river that act as natural dams and naturally control the flow of water. By clearing these rocks bigger boats can use the river meaning more goods can flood into the country. It will also mean the further lowering of fish stocks including the giant catfish, which use the rocks to breed and hide.

As I traveled down the river by boat from Chiang San to Chiang Khong one of the first things I saw was huge ships bearing the Chinese flag unloading goods onto the river bank. The huge line of people, waiting to carry the goods up the river bank to one of the many Chinese warehouses seemed to show why people were giving up farming in a bid to make a living through manual labour.

Overall the communities affected are scared that their way of life is changing fast and they have no alternatives or idea of what to do to keep their way of live. The government is offering no alternatives and it seems that with the influx of mass industry along the banks of the river small scale farming and trade between villages will simply die out.

The Mekong River has for so many centuries been the very basis of live for so many people but now has turned from provider to threaten the communities that it supported for so long.

It really does need all the friends it can get at the moment.