News

A series of dams on the transboundary Mekong River has reduced water levels, damaging fisheries and causing other environmental problems for the people who depend on the waterway for their livelihoods and food.  Now, as the latest dam, the Lao-owned Xayaburi, begins operations on the Lower Mekong, a Thai activist group is ...

People in Ben Tre and Tien Giang provinces are relying on freshwater supplied by trucks since salt intrusion in rivers has made tap water unpotable. In Ben Tre, like much of the rest of the Mekong Delta, drought and saltwater have rendered rivers and canals barren ...

Cambodian authorities should end the politically motivated investigations of four environmental activists looking into illegal logging in Kratie province, Human Rights Watch said today, the International Day of Forests. The authorities should investigate a Taiwanese-Cambodian company whose employees allegedly detained the activists, including the prominent environmentalist Ouch ...

Even as COVID-19 is wreaking havoc and uncertainty around the globe, Vietnam’s Mekong Delta declared an emergency over the devastating drought in early March. Studies suggest that the frequency and severity of droughts in the Mekong region has increased in the past decades, and many blame ...

As coronavirus infections spike across South-east Asia, Myanmar and Laos have conspicuously logged zero patients – despite the fact that both share a sizeable border with China, where the outbreak originated. Both countries say all the people suspected of being infected with the coronavirus have tested negative so far. ...

The power supply project for the China-Laos railway, which was fully carried out on Wednesday (March 18), lays foundation for its scheduled operation in 2021. Along all the four bidding sections of the project in northern Laos, Chinese and Lao engineers cast concrete to cement the ...

A Cambodian government decision to postpone building new hydropower dams on the Mekong river has been welcomed by campaigners, who say it will provide welcome relief to the tens of thousands of people whose livelihood depend upon its rich resources. Cambodia announced on Wednesday that it would ...

Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, has asked the country’s agriculture ministry to draft a directive to stop illegal trading and consumption of wildlife over fears it spreads disease. The directive, seen as a victory for animal rights organisations, will lead to a clamping down on ...

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) was established in 1995 to strengthen joint efforts and partnerships for the sustainable management and development of water resources in mainland South-East Asia. The MRC includes Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, but not China. Beijing established the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, to give ...

The number of hydropower dams has increased dramatically in the last 100 years for energy supply, climate change mitigation, and economic development. However, recent studies have overwhelmingly stressed the negative consequences of dam construction. Notably, it is commonly assumed that reservoirs retain nutrients, and this ...