Drought

HO CHI MINH CITY — A heatwave in Vietnam is worsening environmental conditions in the Mekong Delta region, and farmers and gig workers have told VOA the heat is causing grueling working conditions and cutting crop yields. The heatwave is fueled by the El Nino weather pattern ...

JAKARTA: The Indonesian government will prepare 500,000 hectares of agricultural land for rice production in anticipation of the long drought brought on by the El Nino climate phenomenon.  According to a Presidential Secretariat’s Press, Media and Information Bureau (BPMI) statement, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo said ...

Pressing ahead with its vision to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia,” the government of Laos is going forward with plans to build its seventh of nine mainstream dams on the Mekong River, despite widespread concerns that it could inflict social and environmental damage. The 728-megawatt ...

Heavy rains and a bumper fish crop have improved life along the Mekong River after a nearly four-year drought, poor harvests and the pandemic took a heavy toll on some 65 million people who rely on the waterway for their daily livelihoods. According to the Laos-based ...

Life has never been easy for farmers along Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake – the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia – and now water shortages, soil degradation and the rising costs for chemicals have added to their hardships. “Each season, the most challenging problems we farmers ...

Abnormally high-water levels in the Mekong River at the end of May indicate that dams on the river must release less water during the dry season to protect the ecosystem, experts said at an online panel Monday.  Rain levels during the dry season this year have ...

Lao officials will soon submit plans for the Phou Ngoy Dam and hydropower plant to the Mekong River Commission for review, but villagers whose livelihoods would be hurt by the construction worry they will be left out of the process. Thailand’s Charoen Energy and Water Asia ...

VOA Khmer: You have been reporting on Cambodia as a journalist [and then] you primarily focused on politics and foreign affairs. Why did you become interested in the Tonle Sap Lake and [Mekong] River issues, and what that led you to write a book about ...

Farmers and authorities in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta have started storing water, building dams and planting seeds early to avoid drought and salinity. Living near Kenh Lap, Mekong Delta’s largest manmade reservoir in Ben Tre Province, Le Van Hao said he had witnessed how the reservoir, which ...

Mainland Southeast Asia is entering its fourth year of drought, with climate change and unrelenting dam construction taking an unprecedented toll on the Mekong River and the 65 million people who rely on the waterway for their livelihoods. In Cambodia, the drought has prompted a government ...