Environment and natural resources

After Quang Ninh province’s worst torrential rains in four decades, residents still face lingering danger. Toxic run-off from an open-pit coal mine left a trail of contamination, from local streams to the emerald waters of Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site whose islets attract more than 1 ...

People in Vietnam hope Thailand will reconsider its plan to divert water from the Mekong, because it would seriously affect their ability to produce food. The Mekong Delta is Vietnam’s most important agricultural area. Each year, the area produces the most rice and fruit in the country. This region ...

Authorities in the southern province of Kien Giang are seeking the government’s permission to allocate more than 2,000 hectares of farm and forest land in Phu Quoc for tourism projects. Keep reading ...

Outdoor air pollution contributes to the deaths of an estimated 1.6 million people in China every year, or about 4,400 people a day, according to a newly released scientific paper. The paper maps the geographic sources of China’s toxic air and concludes that much of the smog that ...

A South Korean syndicate has proposed to build a major waste treatment plant to solve an urgent demand in the Mekong Delta where thousands of tons of waste are being discharged every day.   The proposal was made by three companies in a meeting with local officials ...

Customs officers at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on 12 August seized 49 purported elephant tusk parts and one alleged rhino horn that were shipped from Africa. The suspicious tusks weigh 95.54kg while the horn weighs 4.76kg, customs officers said. Keep reading ...

Scientists say the Southeast Asia’s rapid development is driving deforestation in the vital Mekong Subregion, and threatening scores of species in one of the world’s most bio-diverse ecosystems. Trafficking in plant and animal wildlife is accelerating the trend, and governments are being pressed to do ...

A new waste water treatment plant, the largest of its kind in the Mekong Delta, was put into operation on Saturday in Tra Noc Industrial Park in Can Tho, Vietnam. At the completion of the first phase of the project, the new waste water treatment facility can ...

The tripartite panel considering the fate of the coal-fired power plant proposed for Krabi must reach a conclusion before the project’s environment and health impact assessment is considered, says the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (Onep). Raweewan Bhuridej, Onep’s acting secretary-general, yesterday ...

When the authorities in Thailand recently intercepted huge stashes of ivory stuffed inside shipments of beans and tea leaves, the seizures were described as groundbreaking international police work. But there was a major omission in the operation, which took place over the past four months and uncovered ...