Disasters and emergency response
Asia's twin curse: Dams and droughts
River systems help sustain lives and livelihoods. But, thanks to excessive damming and drastic overuse of their water resources, some rivers are drying up before reaching the sea. Nowhere is this truer than Asia. Building large dams has increasingly run into grassroots opposition in established democracies ...
Brahma Chellaney
Asean climate crises loom after decades of abuse
Farmers along the Mekong have been told to expect a worse drought than the brutal water shortages that gripped the region before this year’s rains arrived. Severe or extreme drought is forecast to affect Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam before the next wet season, threatening agricultural production. The Mekong ...
Taylor McDonald
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam may face severe drought
Severe to extreme drought is expected to hit the four lower Mekong River Basin countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam from now until January, threatening agricultural production, experts warned Tuesday. The Mekong River Commission, in a statement, said the drought has so far brought the ...
Govt attempts to rebuild flood victims’ lives amid budget constraints
The government estimates that about 3 trillion kip is needed to repair the damage caused by recent flooding and to restore flood-hit communities to normal. The impacts of disasters are a major challenge for Laos in working towards poverty eradication, with many families now lacking housing ...
Phetphoxay Sengpaseuth
Mekong water level in Nakhon Phanom drops amid drought fears
The level of water in the Mekong river in this northeastern border province is dropping rapidly, exhibiting the most unnatural phenomenon in 50 years, according to local media reports. The reports said water in the Mekong river is dropping by 10-20 centimetres per day. The water ...
Land subsidence a big threat to Mekong Delta
Land subsidence is worsening in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, and experts told a recent seminar in Can Tho city that over-exploitation of groundwater is one of the factors causing it. Do Duc Dung, head of the Southern Institute of Water Resources Planning, told the seminar organised by Can ...
Mekong Delta, HCMC warned of tidal flooding in lowland, riverside areas
According to the center, water level in the Saigon and Dong Nai rivers on October 12 highly increased. It is predicted to continue surging in the next few days. The peak of the high tide might occur on October 15-16, the 17th and 18th day ...
Threat to the Mekong River is Critical, Critics Say
It is starting to appear that nothing can save the 800,000 sq. km Mekong River basin, which provides vital sustenance for as many as 100 million people, from environmental depredation from dams all along the 4,350 km length of the mighty river that feeds it. Over ...
Drought, saltwater intrusion loom in Vietnam's Mekong Delta
The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta plans to grow this year’s winter-spring rice crop early since drought and saltwater intrusion are forecast to be severe in the dry season starting at the end of this year. The country’s rice granary is expected to sow 1.55 million hectares, ...
Urban areas in Mekong Delta face serious flooding
High tides, dykes and land subsidence are causing serious flooding in urban areas in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta region, according to Nguyễn Hữu Thiện, an expert on the Delta’s ecosystem. Thiện told Thanh Niên (Young People) newspaper that excessive exploitation of groundwater had contributed to severe subsidence in the Delta. More than one million wells have been dug since ...
