亞洲地區是未來經濟發展之重心，也是全世界人口最多的地區。隨著人口增長，生活水準提升，用水量亦會隨之增加。人為的政治邊界將人民分開，而水卻迫使人民結合在一起。如何分享共有的水資源，已成當務之急。本文旨在說明跨界水域治理之重要性與意義，並探討湄公河之治理過
程。本文回顧湄公河流域治理之歷史，並由環境、政治、社會、與經濟四面向檢驗湄公河的水治理成效。湄公河流域之治理乃以經濟發展與扶貧為主，而忽略了環境的可持續性。培育環境意識才是永續發展的保障。目前跨邊界治理的最大障礙，主要在於區域內諸國未能全面合作，政治不夠民主化，人民未能積極的參與公共事物，窮人的需求容易被忽略，且貪腐侵吞了治理之經費等。

Asia, with the most population among all continents, is emerging as the
future economic development center in the world. As population growth and
living standards rising, freshwater usage must be increasing. Rivers flows
through artificially demarcated borders, and united their users. How to share common water resources is the most important challenge faced by riparian nations. This paper discussed the importance and meaning of water governance in transboundary rivers and analyzed the case in the Mekong River basin. It introduced the history of water governance in the Mekong River basin, and evaluated its performance from environmental, political, social, and economic dimensions. Economic developments and poverty alleviation are at the top of the transboundary governance goals, that is why the issue of environmental sustainability is often ignored. The nurture of environmental consciousness is the guarantee of sustainable development. The profound governance obstructions are the cooperation selectively among riparian states, the absence of political democracy and active public participation, the ignorance of the poor’s needs, and the corruption causing governance budgets consumed.