News
Work on Mekong railway bridge running ahead of schedule
Construction of a bridge across the Mekong River in Luang Prabang which will carry the Laos-China railway is running ahead of schedule, according to Chinese construction companies. The companies in charge of the bridge and railway construction project on Sunday invited local and foreign media to ...
Mekong river countries urged to reconsider hydropower dams
Activists representing Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam yesterday urged their respective governments to consider the lives of people living around the Mekong River when building infrastructure projects. Some of the activists urged governments to increase impact assessment initiatives, while others called for the suspension of all ongoing ...
Pech Sotheary
Main section of China-Laos Railway bridge over Mekong River completed
With the concrete beam of the last span over Mekong River put in place, the main section of Luang Prabang cross-Mekong River railway bridge has been completed on Sunday, seven months ahead of schedule. The closure of the Luang Prabang Mekong River Super Major Bridge, one ...
Wu Qin
Water shortage a looming crisis for Viet Nam

According to experts at a forum on water resource management yesterday, Việt Nam is facing a severe water crisis. In a report by the International Water Association, a country with inland surface water output of less than 4,000 cu.m per head per annum can be considered as ...
Water resources projects on track: ONWR
The Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR) is planning to move forward with 100 water management projects worth Bt400 billion before the end of the year to boost available water up to 2.9 million cubic metres and cover the needs of 630,000 families nationwide, ...
Worrying days for the Mekong
Water levels at Southeast Asia’s largest river may be at its lowest levels in a century. Low rainfall, high temperatures and poor dam regulations are contributing to a historic low at the Mekong, affecting the region’s agriculture and fishing industries and leading to rapidly drying taps. Chinese ...
Jason Thomas
Cambodian Court Begins Trial of Former RFA Reporters Charged With Espionage
A court in Cambodia on Friday began trial proceedings against two former Radio Free Asia journalists accused of espionage, with the defendants acknowledging that they had continued to provide information to their past employer after it had closed its bureau in Phnom Penh. The two denied, ...
Missing Mekong waters rouse suspicions of China
By this time of year, the Mekong River should have been rising steadily with the monsoon rains, bringing fishermen a bounty of fat fish. Instead, the river water in Thailand has fallen further than anyone can remember and the only fish are tiny. Scientists and people living ...
Panu Wongcha-um
Solar power shines in Myanmar
Myanmar’s launch of its first commercial solar plant last month is a step in the right direction for a country that has yet to provide more than half of its citizens with proper access to electricity. Constructed on over 836 acres of land, an area equivalent ...
Jason Thomas
Severe Drought in Mekong Region Reduces Rice Planting in Laos

Lao farmers have planted rice on less than half the country’s cultivable land this year because of a persistent drought in the Mekong River region that has seen severely reduced water levels and the delay of seasonal monsoon rains, which have yet to begin. Growers have ...