Disasters and emergency response

It is time for the annual floods in the Mekong Delta, but the flooding season these days is more a cherished memory than a practical phenomenon. One day in mid-September Cao Van Bi, 50, was rowing a boat with his wife across a paddy field that ...

A surge in fake news around Southeast Asia, particularly bogus COVID-19 information, has prompted leaders to explore a regional crackdown after a suggestion from a Vietnamese security official. Police agencies in the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries – which represent a total population ...

On September 30, Myanmar announced a record 946 COVID-19 cases in a single day. Less noticed was that it also performed a record number of lab tests – 6,262, to be exact. As cases have increased, particularly in Yangon, numbers like this have quickly become the ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is assisting the government of Thailand in designing, issuing and monitoring innovative capital market initiatives as part of the country’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic in a manner aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. ADB’s ...

The Mekong Delta region should take proactive measures to protect fruit orchards in the 2020 – 21 dry season as severe saltwater intrusion in rivers is forecast in the coming months, experts have said. The measures should include zoning areas for each type of fruit, securing irrigation water and providing extra care ...

Storm Noul hit southern Laos on Friday after passing through Vietnam, bringing heavy rain and flooding to many areas. In Xekong province, the main road in Ta-oy district was flooded on Friday, causing problems for traffic. A local official said “Livestock was moved to higher ground ...

Yan Khouvry was out fishing till 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning. He had set out late morning on Monday and plied the waters near Koh Dach all day and night. He returned with just two fish. Later on Tuesday morning, around 10 a.m., he was preparing ...

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has warned that nearly a quarter of Mekong Delta orchard area could suffer from saltwater intrusion. The ministry stated Thursday at a conference around 80,550 ha or 23.2 percent of Mekong Delta orchards for the 2020-2021 harvest season would ...

Prior to 2020, the 2019 wet season was one of the driest on record. The annual reversal of the Tonle Sap in Cambodia was severely delayed in 2019 but low rainfall plus upstream dam regulation (mostly from China’s 11 mainstream Mekong dams) have totally erased ...

A resurgence of coronavirus infections in Myanmar has been lethal for younger people in the Southeast Asian country, with 40 percent of those under the age of 60 who have tested positive dying from the highly contagious respiratory illness, a government health official said Thursday. On ...