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It's not just the Mekong, it seems every waterway in Asia is in terrible shape.
I remember my first trip to Hanoi, sitting around Hoan Kiem lake, some tourists beside me quoted, Jesus, look at that water, I think if I put my foot in the water I would have to medevac home.

The Lao govt wishes the country to be known as the battery of Asia and so is going ahead with dams on any river they can. Power is on sold to other countries. This limits flows into the Mekong.

The Mekong through Laos is just a mere trickle to what it used to be. Silting is very bad with no flow to send it all to the delta as it used to where it was used for seasonal  vegetable growing.

The silting is filling the deep holes in the riverbed where the large catfish breed. Water temperature is too high and so their eggs die or they do not breed at all. 

Causing water supply problems in Vientiane. Dry river banks are collapsing into the river filling it up even further.

As an aside, I read an online article in the Asian Times where China are wanting to blast / dredge any rock banks or beds in the river through Thailand and Laos so that they can get shipping up and down the river, supposedly for trade . The worry is that this will also allow military and naval vessels to use the river as well.

In Pakse, southern Lao, my wife's family there say you can easily walk across the Mekong there with a short swim in the centre.

Yet more dams are proposed along the Mekong too.

Seems the Chinese Govt have run into a wall of opposition to the blasting / dredging of the Mekong through Thailand and Laos and have canned the idea. Which means they will pursue it covertly, find out who to bribe and then go ahead some time in the future. They are in it for the long haul.

There has been some good articles online regarding sand dredging of the lower Mekong through Cambodia. This is lowering the water level and concentrating the flow so the river banks are drying out and collapsing. Seem the sand is being used by Chinese companies as they cannot get enough of it for the concrete jungles.

Low flow causing water supply problems in Vientiane.

Don't forget the people selling boatloads of silt/sand to other countries.  Singapore's landmass increasing annually ain't natural.  Lower flow combined with lower river depths is an even bigger diaster waiting to happen.