Disasters

Drought

Mekong Levels Reportedly Plummet Due to Chinese Dam Activity

Water levels on the Mekong River have fallen due to the filling of a Chinese dam on the upper reaches of the river in Yunnan province, according to locals and river monitors. The fall was reported on January 4, when locals in the Thai port town ...

Sebastian Strangio

Lao Dams Lower Water Levels on a Scenic River, Harming Tour Boat Operators and Other Local Businesses

Water levels lowered by seven dams along a stretch of the Nam Ou River in Laos are blocking boat travel in a scenic area popular with tourists, impacting tour and passenger boat operators and other local businesses, Lao sources say. Travel by water between Nong Khiaw ...

Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney

Mekong river at lowest level this year

The water level in the Mekong river has dropped quickly and was only about 1.90 metres deep in this northeastern border province on Monday, the lowest this year. The lack of water is being blamed on the many dams upstream in China, and this year’s poor ...

PATTANAPONG SRIPIACHAI

Laos Presses Ahead with 4 More Mekong Dams Amid Drought

Laos is pushing ahead with four dams across the mainstream of the Mekong River, despite an escalating chorus of objections and crippling debt to Chinese state banks which resulted in the loss of control over its electricity grid to China. For almost two decades scientists and ...

Luke Hunt

Anguish as Mekong Delta’s annual floods continue to dry up

It is time for the annual floods in the Mekong Delta, but the flooding season these days is more a cherished memory than a practical phenomenon. One day in mid-September Cao Van Bi, 50, was rowing a boat with his wife across a paddy field that ...

Hoang Nam

In the Shadow of Riches, Fishers Face Eviction, Desperately Low Waters

Yan Khouvry was out fishing till 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning. He had set out late morning on Monday and plied the waters near Koh Dach all day and night. He returned with just two fish. Later on Tuesday morning, around 10 a.m., he was preparing ...

Mech Dara and Michael Dickison

Province to build largest reservoir in Mekong Delta to cope with droughts, salinity

Authorities in Ben Tre Province have approved a plan to build the Mekong Delta’s largest freshwater reservoir to help tackle drought and salinity during the dry season. Construction of the Lac Dia Lake, which will have a capacity of 1.3 million cubic meters, is expected to ...

Hoang Nam

Low water levels in Mekong, tributaries affect fish farming

Water levels in the Mekong river and its tributaries in this northeastern border province are very low compared to past years, jeopardising the livelihoods of farmers who raise fish in baskets, according to local media reports. In Muang district, water in the Mekong river is now ...

PATTANAPONG SRIPIACHAI

China’s Dam-Building Is Harming the Mekong River

The Mekong is one of Asia’s most important rivers, supporting 60 million people in Southeast Asia. But for the second consecutive year, the lower Mekong basin has hit a record low water flow, affecting irrigation, rice production and fisheries, all vital to the region’s food security. The drought ...

Bloomberg News

The Last Farewell to the Mighty Mekong

The miracle of the Mekong, where the pulsating force of the monsoon-driven river every year pushes its tributary to back up and reverse its flow into the great Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia, has again been disrupted and obstructed by dams, drought, and climate change. “This ...

Tom Fawthrop

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