The Nation
Haze woes lIkely to lInger, worsen
Unlike the smog that enveloped Bangkok early in the year, the haze crisis in the North stems largely from spontaneous dry-season forest fires and other fires deliberately set to clear farmland. GISDA has found that the number of hotspots in nine northern provinces including Chiang Mai ...
Answers demanded on Mekong rapids
An activist who has been fighting for years against the planned dredging of sections of the Mekong River for greater shipping access has called on the authorities to clarify the status of the project, which was supposed to have been cancelled following a meeting between ...
Don commends MLC members on their cooperation
Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai marked the third anniversary of Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) by saying the member states’ tireless efforts were testimony to the “cordial and warm relationship that runs deep in the fabric of our societies”. In his statement, Don said it has been ...
Mekong secretariat to strengthen information sharing
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat is improving its data, modelling and information systems to provide enhanced and timely information to the public and the MRC member countries — Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam — according to the secretariat’s top management. Keep reading ...
Lack of clarity on scrapping Mekong rapids blasting raises concerns
Environmentalists and local people along the Mekong River in Thailand remain uneasy over previously proposed plans to blast the Mekong River rapids, inspite of a Foreign Ministry assurance that the navigation channel improvement project had been scrapped. Keep reading ...
Bangkok Declaration must wait until June
ASEAN countries yesterday agreed to work together closely to deal with the region’s serious marine trash problem, with leaders of the grouping expected to endorse the Bangkok Declaration at the Asean Summit in Bangkok in June. Keep reading ...
Can Laos afford to be the ‘Battery of Asia’?
The debate over Laos’ strategy to become the “Battery of Asia” continues months after the deadly disaster at the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam, even as the Lao government keeps building more dams. Despite the previous government’s decision to suspend new dam projects and academics’ concerns ...
Compensation talks begin for Lao dam disaster victims
LAO AUTHORITIES say negotiations have begun over compensation for the victims of last summer’s Xe Pian-Xe Nam Noy Dam collapse, but environmental activists and rights campaigners want the dam’s backers to do more than just pay out money – they should help restore their livelihoods, ...
Cambodian picked to guide Mekong Commission strategy
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) announced on Friday it had named Cambodian development expert An Pich Hatda as chief executive officer. It said the MRC Ministerial Council had recently chosen Hatda, a development professional by training, to be the top official at the secretariat for ...
Extreme weather a wake-up call: experts
THE WORLD needs to be prepared for more extreme weather events in future after disasters caused by climate change inflicted losses running into many billions of dollars in 2018, according to a study. The British organisation, Christian Aid, last Thursday released its new report titled “Counting ...
