Disasters
Floods
Another Mekong River dam in Laos begins review process
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 ...
Floods cause mass buffalo starvation at Thale Noi park in southern Thailand
More than 200 dead water buffaloes have been found floating today at the Thale Noi Waterfowl Park in the southern Thai province of Pattalung. Prolonged flooding in the region had destroyed the grasses that the buffalo rely on for food. Without it, they starved to ...
Petch Petpailin
Housing for Attapeu Flood Victims Still Unfinished
New homes for victims of the 2018 dam collapse in Attapeu Province have yet to be completed nearly four years after the disaster. KPL reports that Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Ms.Suansavanh Vignaket, visited villagers in Sanamxay District, Attapeu Province, yesterday. She toured the area and spoke with local ...
Manyphone Vongphachanh
Dam reservoir releases could raise Mekong River water levels
Mekong River levels are expected to rise as hydropower dams in the Upper Basin begin releasing water from upstream reservoirs. These dry season releases will affect the river’s natural flow, experts said, altering livelihoods across the basin. Regional specialists tracking the ebb and flow of the ...
ANTON L. DELGADO
Champassak to forge ahead with Mekong management project
Authorities in Champassak province are confident that the Mekong River Integrated Management Project planned for Pakxe city will soon resume now that the Ministry of Finance has submitted a request for an additional loan to complete the first phase of the Landslide Protection Project. Officials in ...
Times Reporters
Vietnam Faces Watershed Moment ahead of COP26
In a speech at the UN Security Council, Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam, reminded member nations that sea level rise is a major threat for coastal nations, including the lowlands of China, Bangladesh, Indonesian islands, Philippine archipelagos and Vietnam. Other delegates lauded Quy’s ...
James Borton
Villagers fear losing land as riverbanks continue to collapse
Some 50 years ago, Dul Han’s parents gave her and each of her four brothers and sisters a plot of land measuring 12 metres wide by 40 metres long in Kampong Cham province’s Sdao commune after they got married and had their own families. Unfortunately, like ...
Moeun Chhean Nariddh
Rising river sparks Phnom Penh evacuations
People in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district were evacuated on Monday from their houses to temporary shelters on the dike of Prampi Makara Dam until the floods recede. Sak Sampov commune chief Tith Sam On yesterday told Khmer Times that many families can stay on first floor of their ...
Chhun Sunly
20 major dams and reservoirs in Thailand present overflow risk
Thailand’s Office of the National Water Resources has requested that irrigation officials be ready to manage the discharge of excess water from 20 major dams and reservoirs. The heavy monsoon rains this year have led to potentially dangerous overflow conditions. Officials from the ONWR have instructed people living ...
Ann Carter / SOURCE: Thai PBS World
Untold impact on northern Thailand’s wildlife from Mekong dams
About a year ago, the Boon Rueang Wetland Forest Conservation Group began a survey of wildlife in the 483-hectare community forest in northern Thailand. “We have recorded some leopards, otters and other animals,” says Songpol Chanruang, chair of the group. Though only around 130 kilometres long, ...
Tyler Roney, Piyaporn Wongruang