Energy

A series of dams on the transboundary Mekong River has reduced water levels, damaging fisheries and causing other environmental problems for the people who depend on the waterway for their livelihoods and food.  Now, as the latest dam, the Lao-owned Xayaburi, begins operations on the Lower Mekong, a Thai activist group is ...

A Cambodian government decision to postpone building new hydropower dams on the Mekong river has been welcomed by campaigners, who say it will provide welcome relief to the tens of thousands of people whose livelihood depend upon its rich resources. Cambodia announced on Wednesday that it would ...

The number of hydropower dams has increased dramatically in the last 100 years for energy supply, climate change mitigation, and economic development. However, recent studies have overwhelmingly stressed the negative consequences of dam construction. Notably, it is commonly assumed that reservoirs retain nutrients, and this ...

Electricity-starved Cambodia will not develop new hydropower dams on the Mekong River for the next 10 years, a senior energy official said on Wednesday, as it reviews its policy to seek energy from coal, natural gas and solar. The decision means that neighboring Laos, which has ...

A Ministry of Energy official said Tuesday that Cambodia will not develop new mainstream hydropower projects on the Mekong River for the next 10 years. Villagers and fishing communities along the Mekong River long have been in the dark over whether proposed dams, including the massive ...

A new dam is set to go up in southern Laos, in the district where two years ago a major dam collapse caused a flood that was described as the country’s worst in decades. On July 23, 2018, water poured over a saddle dam in Attapeu ...

The Laos Ministry of Energy and Mines said the domestic distribution of electricity is likely to rise to 28,886 million kilowatt-hours (kwh) by the end of 2020. The information was shared by a ministry official at a recent annual meeting of the energy and mines sector ...

The building of hydropower projects on the Mekong River’s mainstream must ensure that they do not cause negative impacts, including cross-border effects, on the environment and socio-economic development of the countries along the river, especially the nations in the downstream region, in line with international practice and regulations ...

What would Vietnam be without the Mekong Delta? Envisioning such a reality is difficult, but it is entirely possible that this will come to pass, albeit long after anyone reading this in 2020 is dead. The delta is Vietnam’s most vital agricultural region, producing 50% of the ...

China’s dams are worsening drought conditions downstream the Mekong River, storing and controlling up to 50 percent of its waters, experts say. China on average contributes around 14 percent of the Mekong River’s flow, “but an annual average can be misleading,” says Brian Eyler, director of ...