Myanmar suspends Manipur hydro project in Chin State
Myanmar has suspended a 380-megawatt hydropower project at the Manipur River in Chin State due to high risks, U Tun Naing, Deputy Minister for Electricity and Energy, told the Hluttaw last week. “After a review at the State Economic Coordination Committee Meeting, this project was found ...
Htoo Thant
High-tech cleanup on the way for Mekong, Tonle Sap in Phnom Penh
The Ministry of Tourism and two NGOs – Everwave and River and Ocean Cleanup – plan to launch a campaign to clean up the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Tonle Bassac rivers in Phnom Penh by collecting rubbish from the water and along the river banks. ...
Mekong forum focused on sharing responsibility for common prosperity: expert
The Mekong Forum 2016 served to foster dialogue among partners and agencies of Greater Mekong Subregion countries to pursuing their development targets, an expert said on August 29. “These include reducing poverty and inequality, generating inclusive growth, improving capacity development, and exceeding the sustainable development ...
Environmental impact report of largest FDI project in Mekong Delta approved
The MONRE requires Delta Offshore Energy – the project owner – to publicly post the decision approving the environmental impact assessment report following the law and strictly implement requirements for environmental protection. The Bac Lieu LNG-to-power plant located in Vinh Hau A Commune in Hoa Binh District has ...
Tan Thai – Translated by Gia Bao
The Mekong doesn't need more destructive dams
On 11 May, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) announced that the proposed Sanakham hydropower project in Laos will undergo the MRC’s Prior Consultation process. Sanakham is the sixth mainstream dam to be submitted for Prior Consultation. The proposed Sanakham dam is expensive, unnecessary and risky — ...
SAVE THE MEKONG COALITION
Opinion: Tensions rise along the Mekong as science meets strategy
China has been ramping up its investments with the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, which – according to American officials – is an attempt to compete with the Mekong River Commission (MRC). A competition over who dominates scientific and technical knowledge of the river indicates an escalation in the complexity of challenges ...
Giulio Boccaletti
After Chinese company’s visit, villagers fear dam construction
Following a visit by representatives of the Chinese company planning to build a controversial 108-MW hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, local officials and residents say they fear that construction on the project, which will require the evacuation of an estimated 1,500 villagers, ...
Sani Sinary
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-chinese-companys-visit-villagers-fear-dam-construction-53409/
What role do nature-based solutions play in the Rohingya refugee crisis?
Over the last three years, the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf have been telling us many stories of failures, successes and uncertainties. These camps are a painful symbol of Myanmar’s atrocities against its own citizens, making them stateless. The government of Bangladesh, the ...
Haseeb Md Irfanullah
Is Cambodia’s thirst for sand putting communities and the Mekong at risk?
Sophea Soung has been farming on Boeung Tompoun, one of the few remaining lakes in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, since 2009. Every day, her family rises with the sun to float through verdant waters on a slender boat and harvest vegetables, which they then transport ...
Marta Kasztelan, Thomas Cristofoletti
Geopolitics plays out on the Mekong with doubts on dams and promises of cooperation
Recent weeks have seen new developments in the ongoing tension over the Mekong river and its waters, as the river basin faces ecological crises and its waters play an ever-larger role in geopolitics. Thailand has announced that it is reconsidering its decision to purchase power from the planned Sanakham ...
Editorial
Why we should care about fate of the Mekong
The Mekong River is Southeast Asia’s beating heart, coursing almost 5,000 km through China, where it is known as the Lancang River, and onward through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia before entering Vietnam and flowing into the sea. More than 70 million people rely on the ...
An Pich Hatda
Opinion: Did China close Mekong tap? Data matters for cooperation
Recent reports claim definitive proof that the 2019-20 Mekong drought was caused by China – researchers at the Australia Mekong Partnership for Environmental Resources and Energy Systems (AMPERES) disagree. Will the controversial analysis further polarise stakeholders, or could the crisis shift regional cooperation into more productive spaces? The ...
Tarek Ketelsen; Timo Räsänen; John Sawdon
Tackling Myanmar’s climate crisis with solar
The ASEAN Post recently published an article on extreme climate in Myanmar and its threat to the locals, agriculture, ecosystems and more. It is said that Myanmar is one of the most vulnerable countries at risk of climate crisis. Extreme droughts and flooding in recent years and ...
Athira Nortajuddin
Authorities in Laos Draft Law on Hydropower Safety
The law will cover dams and hydropower installations and set standards or quality control procedures for each phase of construction, Lao National Radio reports. Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Mr. Sinava Souphanouvong, spoke during a conference held to discuss the draft law on hydropower safety that ...
Phayboune Thanabouasy
Chinese dams on Mekong River endanger fish stocks, livelihoods, activists say
For Pianporn Deetes, the Mekong is more than a river. “This is not just liquid, but this is the entire life-supporting system,” Deetes, a local activist, said recently on a wooden long-tail boat heading upstream in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. The Mekong, one of the world’s longest waterways, runs about ...
Keir Simmons, Rhoda Kwan, Nat Sumon and Jennifer Jett
Thailand floats hydro-solar projects for its dams as fossil fuel supplement
Thailand is close to completing one the world’s biggest floating hydro-solar hybrid projects on the surface of a dam, a step toward boosting renewable energy production after years of criticism for reliance on fossil fuels. About 144,417 solar panels are being installed on a reservoir in ...
Reuters
Webinar discusses fate of Mekong River
PanNature, a Vietnamese not-for-profit organisation, in collaboration with the Mekong Community Institute of Thailand (MCI) and the NGO Forum on Cambodia, organised a webinar themed “The Fate of the Mekong River: Current Development and Future Perspectives” on November 5 within the framework of the ASEAN People’s Forum 2020. PanNature ...
Mekong Delta localities urged to work harder to complete yearly targets
In a document informing the PM’s conclusion in a meeting with leaders of the Mekong Delta localities, PM Phuc called for the engagement of the whole political system in implementing the Government’s resolutions on supporting COVID-19-hit people and solutions to remove difficulties facing business and ...
VNA
As Banks Shun Coal, Vietnam Emerges an Unlikely Solar Champion
Nguyen Tuan was watching the sun shine down on his four-hectare cantaloupe farm in southern Vietnam when he realized it could do more than help his crops grow. The 46-year-old installed 40 solar panels on greenhouses at his farm 55 miles outside of Ho Chi Minh ...
Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen, Dan Murtaugh, John Boudreau
High Fuel Prices a Blow to Cambodia’s Covid-hit Tourism Sector
The Cambodian government has lifted all COVID-19 travel restrictions in the hopes of boosting the hard-hit tourism industry, but now businesses say sanctions on Russia and the resulting high energy prices are hampering the sector’s recovery. ...
Sorn Sarath
https://cambojanews.com/high-fuel-prices-a-blow-to-cambodias-covid-hit-tourism-sector/