Environment and natural resources

China’s well-tested mantra that has powered its economic rise — build quality infrastructure and the rest will follow — is in full play in Tibet. The Qinghai-Tibet railway, the 1,956-km track passing over bridges and through tunnels, has already made history. []Several major rivers — the ...

The equivalent of one garbage truck full of plastic waste is dumped into the world’s oceans every minute, equal to 8 million tons a year. New research suggests that 90 percent of that waste gets into the oceans through 10 major river systems.[] Two of the ...

Construction work has been delayed until the middle of next month for the initial 3.5-km stretch of the Thai-China high speed railway (HSR) in Thailand’s north-eastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, Bangkok Post daily reported on Thursday.[] The full line will span 873 km, linking Thailand and ...

Among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) perhaps no other topic has more of an impact on global progress than water. Water management determines the sustainability of industries, ecosystems, peace, and livelihoods, and critically impacts human health. [] Half of all the bottled water that we sampled in ...

Targeting a 10-percent increase in fish abundance in the Mekong and Sekong Rivers by 2021, fisheries experts from Cambodia and Lao PDR shared today the progress in fish monitoring activities that set a baseline, and continued discussions on the formation of a joint fisheries management ...

Interior Minister General Anupong Paojinda said on Tuesday that he had ordered an investigation into allegations that some sand-mining boats on the Mekong River had dug up sand outside of the areas allowed under their permits.Keep reading ...

There is increasing worry in Southeast Asia about the impact on regional seafood production from Chinese plans to dam and widen the Mekong River under its “One Belt, One Road” scheme. Published at the recently concluded Congress of China’s Communist Party, the plan calls for a ...

China’s international rivers are becoming a focal point for contests over control of natural resources—and potentially international conflict.China, in its powerful position as headwater nation, continues to actively promote hydropower development domestically and internationally. When downstream nations rely on un-dammed rivers for fisheries and irrigation, ...

Rather than ecologically harmful dams, Cambodia should explore solar power to fill its energy gap.[] One such project is the proposed Sambor Dam, to be located on the Mekong River’s mainstream at Sambor town, Kratie province, Cambodia. This would be one of eleven large hydropower dams ...

When Pope Francis visits Myanmar and Bangladesh he will have a chance to see firsthand the huge environmental challenges that threaten the wellbeing of tens of millions of people. Here we look at how frequent natural disasters and environmental abuses have made both Bangladesh and ...