Disasters and emergency response
Disasters
Thailand's sugar output to hit nine-year low due to drought - trade body
Thailand’s sugar production is likely to fall 28% year-on-year in 2019/20 to a nine-year low of 10.5 million tonnes as drought curtails cane supplies, the head of a leading trade body told Reuters on Friday. The lower production will limit exports from the world’s second-biggest exporter ...
The disease burden on the Thai-Myanmar border
IN 2019, more than 1.3 million people in Southeast Asia were infected with dengue fever. The cyclical epidemic was exacerbated by poor state health infrastructure and constraints on access, as well as climate change and the increased movement of goods and people. In this context, and ...
Laure Siegel
WB supports Laos in disaster reconstruction, resilience
The Lao Ministry of Finance and the World Bank signed a financing agreement of 50 million U.S. dollars on Tuesday, extending support to the ongoing Lao People’s Democratic Republic Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Management Project and Lao Road Sector Project II. Bounchom Ubonpaseuth, Lao Deputy Minister ...
Xinhua
Dried-up Mekong forces boats to reroute
The Mekong River has almost dried up in That Phanom district, forcing boats that transport goods and passengers across the Thai-Lao border to find other routes. The provicinial harbour office reported that water in the Mekong River as it flows through the province dropped to between ...
Pattanapong Sripiachai
Suvarnabhumi virus screening limited
Officials at Suvarnabhumi Airport say they are awaiting more information from Chinese authorities before deciding whether to expand screening of passengers arriving from China to try to detect the new coronavirus that is causing worldwide concern. China, meanwhile, announced late Saturday that all group tours from ...
PM urges ministries, localities to prevent nCoV outbreak
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has issued an urgent dispatch on preventing the acute respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus (nCoV) strain, which is developing complicatedly in China without specific treatment and preventive vaccine yet. The dispatch was sent to the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Foreign ...
Thailand to Air Concerns with River Commission over Drought, Chinese Dams in Mekong
Thailand will raise concerns about its current drought during a Mekong River Commission meeting expected next month, the Thai water-resources chief said, as local farmers complained that dams in China were choking the waterway on which millions depend for their livelihoods. Somkiat Prajamwong, director of Thailand’s ...
Another dam on the Mekong
Since the announcement in July last year that the Lao government was notifying the Mekong River Commission (MRC) of its intention to proceed with the construction of a dam due to be completed by 2027, not far from the old royal capital of Luang Prabang, ...
Milton Osborne
Mekong communities struggle as China tests dam equipment
Water levels on the Mekong River, which flows through China and five other countries before emptying into the South China Sea, have dropped once again after Beijing revealed it was testing equipment at one of its 11 dams in the upper reaches of the vital ...
Leonie Kijewski
Vietnam calls for fair, sustainable use of Mekong River resources
Vietnam has asked all riparian countries of the Mekong River to act together in using its water and other resources in a fair and sustainable manner. “We believe that along with the legitimate interests in utilizing the water resources of the Mekong River for development, countries ...
Viet Anh