Hydropower dams

Two hydropower projects along Southeast Asia’s most important river have had measurable, but moderate, impact on water flow, sediment and fisheries, according to preliminary findings of a report by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) released last week. With roughly one year of monitoring data, the MRC ...

A top Thai court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to halt purchases of electricity by the country from a hydropower dam in neighbouring Laos over environmental concerns, bringing an end to a decade-long legal battle. The case brought by 37 villagers from eight provinces along ...

The stiff, rusted grate forming a metal ramp scraped its stone anchor and bent under Lounh Samnang’s weight as he clambered onto the small-scale dam he operates and maintains. Water rushed from the reservoir and gurgled through the dam’s turbine before flowing down O’Porng Morn Kraom, a ...

Upstream dams and sand mining have caused significant erosion along the Mekong River in western Laos, according to experts, devastating riparian communities in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation with high waters and powerful currents. But residents of those communities say they believe that other issues are to ...

Four years after a dam collapse that caused Laos’ worst flooding in decades, survivors who lost everything say they are tired of waiting for the government to provide them with new homes and arable land. On the night of July 23, 2018, billions of cubic feet ...

Reported leaks at the sides of the Nam Theun 1 Hydropower dam under construction in Laos were not a cause for concern and were normal when a dam began storing water, Electricity Generating Plc president Thepparat Theppitak said on Monday. EGCO, a subsidiry of the Electricity ...

Abnormally high-water levels in the Mekong River at the end of May indicate that dams on the river must release less water during the dry season to protect the ecosystem, experts said at an online panel Monday.  Rain levels during the dry season this year have ...

Lao Minister of Energy and Mines, Mr. Daovong Phonekeo, says enacting a specific law to ensure dam safety is a vital part of the country’s efforts to achieve sustainable energy development. Minister Daovong told the National Assembly on Thursday that while there are regulations and standards controlling ...

In the rustic old town of Chiang Khan on the Mekong River, a tourist haven in northeastern Thailand’s Isaan region, local fishing communities now live in fear of a proposed dam that threatens to devastate their livelihoods. The $2 billion, 684-megawatt dam would sit just 2 ...

Southeast Asian nations are eyeing Beijing nervously as it fiddles with the water taps that control their economies. But their citizens are alarmed at failed fish migrations and wildly fluctuating river levels. Now they’ve taken their anger to the world. After four years of drought, the ...