Disasters

The Ministry of Education and Sports has issued a notice ordering the closure of schools following an outbreak of Covid-19 in Vientiane Capital. The notice states that all public and private educational facilities from preschools through to universities will be closed across Vientiane Capital following a ...

Charities and human rights campaigners have expressed alarm at a decision by the Home Office to charter its first ever deportation flight to Vietnam. The Guardian has learned that the flight is due to take off on Wednesday, though it is unclear why the government has decided ...

Through disasters, a fellowship was struck. Ormboon Thipsuna remembers the date well, Aug 12, 2008, when a deluge of water from the Mekong swept through her hometown of Nong Khai and seven riparian northeastern provinces. Considering the rainfall was rather small and the Mekong’s gradual ...

Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh has instructed authorities in charge to continue with the vaccination of target groups and to offer the vaccine to all other citizens, so that the target could be reached or even exceeded. The premier made the call in a statement issued on ...

Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long warned the risk of a new Covid-19 outbreak in Vietnam was “very high” amid a significant surge in community transmissions from neighboring countries. Long told an online meeting Friday the southwest border with Cambodia and southwestern provinces of the country, better ...

Chinese dams on the Mekong River have begun releasing water during the river’s normal dry season, causing trouble for wildlife, farmers and fishermen in Laos, sources in the Southeast Asian country told RFA. “The Mekong River water level is up 12 centimeters [4.7 inches] from yesterday,” ...

Facing severe drought as it enters its hottest season, Thailand has launched groundwater extraction operations in its most arid regions to tap sources deep beneath the soil, as it looks at ways to harness future supplies. The groundwater department has sent geologists and more than 80 ...

Laos has become the only country in ASEAN with zero deaths attributed to the Covid-19 coronavirus. Until last week, Cambodia and Laos had each recorded zero deaths from the Coronavirus, despite differing strategies for Covid prevention and control. Cambodia suffered its first death from Covid-19 last Thursday ...

Learning it the hard way from last year’s drought and salinity, Mekong Delta farmers have been preparing their crops for the worst. Early March, Huynh Huu Loc, 62, comes to check the water level in canals around his family’s durian farm, which stretches 1,000 hectares (2,470 ...

Laos has an estimated 63,000 unemployed, including those already in the country and migrant workers who have returned to Laos due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a report by the KPL, the unemployment rate in Laos is expected to increase by 20 percent. Head of the Employment Promotion ...