Environment and natural resources
Climate change
Project review assesses progress of flood risk mitigation
Over 61,000 people in Vientiane will benefit from the Flood and Drought Risk Management and Mitigation Project (FDM) after its completion, a review meeting heard on Friday. The project has been improving flood and drought risk management on more than 20,000 hectares of land, reduced ...
Mass shrimp deaths in Tra Vinh
Changeable weather and careless farming in Tra Vinh Province has caused pollution and killed a large number of shrimp in the area. As of March, Tra Vinh had over 7,000 households raising nearly 600 million black tiger shrimp and 2,240 households raising 524 million white leg ...
Vietnam lacks green works despite legal framework
Despite many regulations favoring energy-saving construction, Vietnam still has few green buildings. The rapid development of the middle-class, which uses air-conditioners regularly, is a major reason behind the increasingly high electricity consumption in large cities of Vietnam, according to EuroCham. Tomaso Andreatta, chair of EuroCham’s Green ...
Poor crop hurts cashew farmers
Many farmers in the southern provinces of Bình Thuận, Bình Phước and Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu have been encountering difficulties due to a poor cashew crop caused by bad weather and plant diseases. Nguyễn Đình Chương, a farmer who has four hectares of cashew ...
A look inside Xayaburi dam
The Xayaburi dam, with installed capacity of 1,260 MW, is the first one among 12 mainstream dams on the Mekong river. Located approximately 30 kilometers east of Xayaburi district, in northern Laos, this $3.2 billion dam is a controversial case: while Laos and dam-developers are ...
Mekong water diplomacy vital
Dr Lê Tuấn Anh, deputy director of the Research Institute for Climate Change at Cần Thơ University, speaks to Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper about the negative impact of climate change. Do you anticipate that in 2017 the Mekong Delta region will face a drought as severe as last year’s? ...
Japan to help country go green
Japan has signed a three-year deal to help train government officials on attracting environmentally friendly investment. The Environment Ministry and Japan International Cooperation Agency on March 6 signed the agreement to educate officials about how to use environmental impact assessments and enforce pollution controls. The project is ...
Lights off in Vietnam for earth hour
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and 60 other cities and provinces will turn off the light from 8.30 PM to 9.30 PM on March 25, in sync with foreign countries. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has launched the Earth Hour campaign 2017 themed “Light ...
As global food demand rises, climate change is hitting staple crops
While increases in population and wealth will lift global demand for food by up to 70 percent by 2050, agriculture is already feeling the effects of climate change. This is expected to continue in coming decades. Scientists and farmers will need to act on multiple fronts ...
Climate captives: Life and loss in the Mekong river delta
The growing impact of climate change on the people living in the Mekong river delta is the focus of Singapore-based photographer Oh Soon-Hwa’s new solo exhibition. Submerged up to her midriff in the muddy water of a mangrove swamp, Bong is collecting her catch for the ...