Disasters

NOAA/NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite captured this image of the hundreds of fires burning across large swaths of land in both Myanmar and Cambodia on Feb. 18, 2020. There are many reasons that fires start including weather related ones such as lightning which will ignite dry ...

China has had a setback in its infrastructure building along the Mekong River after Thailand cancelled a project on the vital Southeast Asian waterway. But observers say that without more coordination between downstream countries, China’s influence in the region will continue to go unchallenged. In a ...

China on Thursday said it was helping its downstream neighbors cope with a prolonged drought by releasing more water from its dams on the Mekong River, adding it would consider sharing information on hydrology to provide further assistance in the future. The statement came as a ...

Dam operations upstream combined with a drought have caused a severe drop in water levels along the Mekong River, on which tens of millions of people rely for their livelihoods through fishing or farming, say Thais who live by the banks of the great waterway. BenarNews ...

A pipeline stretching from central to north-east Thailand promises to “promote Thailand as an energy hub in the region” and “increase energy security”, according to the Ministry of Energy. Construction began in mid-2019, despite local communities objecting that the largely Chinese-financed project could worsen flooding ...

Thailand has been hit with what may be its worst drought in 40 years, pummelling sugar production in one of the world’s biggest exporters of the sweetener. Sugar output may tumble about 30% to 9 million-10 million tonnes, while cane output is forecast to fall below ...

Thailand’s sugar production is likely to fall 28% year-on-year in 2019/20 to a nine-year low of 10.5 million tonnes as drought curtails cane supplies, the head of a leading trade body told Reuters on Friday. The lower production will limit exports from the world’s second-biggest exporter ...

IN 2019, more than 1.3 million people in Southeast Asia were infected with dengue fever. The cyclical epidemic was exacerbated by poor state health infrastructure and constraints on access, as well as climate change and the increased movement of goods and people. In this context, and ...

The Lao Ministry of Finance and the World Bank signed a financing agreement of 50 million U.S. dollars on Tuesday, extending support to the ongoing Lao People’s Democratic Republic Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Management Project and Lao Road Sector Project II. Bounchom Ubonpaseuth, Lao Deputy Minister ...

The Mekong River has almost dried up in That Phanom district, forcing boats that transport goods and passengers across the Thai-Lao border to find other routes. The provicinial harbour office reported that water in the Mekong River as it flows through the province dropped to between ...