Disasters and emergency response

In the Mekong Delta, salt water is often going inland and then mixed with freshwater used for drinking and agriculture. Some areas facing these water shortages are also bracing for potential drought as the summer approaches. As a result, water shortages are rampant in the ...

Update: Two Myanmar men have tested positive for COVID-19 in the country: a 26-year-old Myanmar citizen who had returned from the UK and a 36-year-old US green card holder who returned from the US, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS). The ...

Shortages of water are a huge problem for Thailand. The government’s attempts to promote industrial investment in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) — Chon Buri, Rayong and Chachoengsao — has caused water demand in the region to rise drastically. This has diverted water away from farmers ...

While being on the right track, the government’s latest response to the new coronavirus (Covid-19) by closing schools and entertainment venues, as well as putting off the Songkran break, is likely to prove too little, too late, once again. As other countries have shown, the ...

People in Ben Tre and Tien Giang provinces are relying on freshwater supplied by trucks since salt intrusion in rivers has made tap water unpotable. In Ben Tre, like much of the rest of the Mekong Delta, drought and saltwater have rendered rivers and canals barren ...

Even as COVID-19 is wreaking havoc and uncertainty around the globe, Vietnam’s Mekong Delta declared an emergency over the devastating drought in early March. Studies suggest that the frequency and severity of droughts in the Mekong region has increased in the past decades, and many blame ...

As coronavirus infections spike across South-east Asia, Myanmar and Laos have conspicuously logged zero patients – despite the fact that both share a sizeable border with China, where the outbreak originated. Both countries say all the people suspected of being infected with the coronavirus have tested negative so far. ...

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) was established in 1995 to strengthen joint efforts and partnerships for the sustainable management and development of water resources in mainland South-East Asia. The MRC includes Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, but not China. Beijing established the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, to give ...

Although Myanmar remained one of the rare countries without confirmed cases of COVID-19 on March 13, the national economy has not been immune to the impact of the coronavirus since it emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. In Myanmar, thousands of workers ...

About VND350 billion ($15.16 million) would serve to combat drought and salt intrusion in five Mekong Delta provinces, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The money, to be derived from multiple sources, would be awarded to Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Kien Giang and Ca ...