UCA News

Villagers who were evicted from their homes in northern Laos to make way for a new hydroelectric dam remain disenfranchised three years on, according to media reports. The villagers relocated from Xayaburi province in 2018 are housed in resettlement towns where they lack enough land and ...

Recorded water levels in the Lower Mekong River Basin (LMB) saw significant increases during the last seven days as a result of heavy rainfall and sudden water releases from dams, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on July 29. But it said river levels across all ...

Thailand has been downgraded by the United States in a global report on human trafficking because the Southeast Asian nation’s government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.” In its 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, in which Thailand has been downgraded ...

Police in Hanoi and a central province have detained four Facebookers for posts allegedly infringing state interests and fighting against the communist government. State-run Quang Ngai newspaper reported on June 30 that police in Quang Ngai province arrested Bach Van Hien, 34, Phung Thanh Tuyen, 38, and Le ...

Vietnam has clamped down on freedom of expression ahead of a Communist Party congress by imposing a harsh jail sentence on an environmental activist and blogger for an anti-state campaign. On Jan. 20, the People’s Court of Hau Giang province in the southern Mekong Delta sentenced Dinh ...

For almost a decade, Laos has been warned that its extravagant spending spree on infrastructure carried enormous financial risks that threatened to undermine its sovereignty and efforts to raise living standards among the poor. Those warnings fell on deaf ears as Vientiane — hell-bent on becoming ...

The Mekong River is again striking record lows, threatening crop production, fish stocks and the livelihoods of 70 million people amid rampant over-development and dire warnings. But this year’s drought, the second in three years, could mark a turning point and a bleak future.Scientists, backed ...

The growth of drug resistant malaria threatens communities in the epicenter of the illness — five southeast Asian countries through which flows the Mekong river — but also poses a global threat. Grassroots campaigns are targeting to protect rural people and those living far from medical services.  Keep ...

Landlocked Southeast Asian country facing double environmental threats of destructive dams and illegal logging.[]But logging isn’t the only threat. Of perhaps much greater concern is the plan to build a series of hydro-power dams along the Mekong river and its tributaries.Keep reading ...