Disasters and emergency response

Venue closure, curfew and state policies enforced to contain the spread of Covid-19 are affecting the labour force severely. Workers experience the impact in different magnitudes, with some getting less pay and seeing their working hours reduced. Others manage to work from home. Some lose ...

The Mekong Delta has experienced the most severe drought and saline intrusion ever in the dry season 2019-2020 but the negative impacts on agricultural production and daily life were minimised significantly thanks to effective measures, a top official has said. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong made the ...

Around 41,900 hectares of the winter-spring rice crop in provinces in the Mekong Delta were affected this year; of which, 26,000 hectares of rice ended in dead loss. On June 20, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) cooperated with the People’s Committee of Long ...

The Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) annual report, published 16 June, includes a noteworthy statement calling for increased transparency from China over upstream dam operations on the river. The Mekong is Southeast Asia’s longest river and acts as a lifeline to 60 million people. Downtream Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and ...

The government of Laos has declared victory over Covid-19 following the discharge of all 19 confirmed cases from hospital, with no new cases for 59 days. Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith announced at a press conference yesterday that Laos had “gained an important victory in the first ...

Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has announced the Lao PDR is free of Covid-19 following the discharge of all 19 covid-19 patients from hospital and 59 consecutive days of no new infections.  “As of today, June 10, 2020, the number of people infected with COVID-19 in our ...

The Fisheries Administration has voiced concern over declining fish population caused by the decrease in water levels at lakes and rivers in the Kingdom. In an interview with a local media outlet, its director Hong Hy said yesterday the water levels in many important rivers in ...

When Myanmar announced its seven-point economic relief plan to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 in late April, one item immediately raised eyebrows among China analysts in the country. The initiative’s third main objective is stated as “Easing the Impacts on Laborers and Workers”, and ...

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in a report published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed her concern over human rights violations, particularly on the freedom of speech, in Cambodia and some other countries in the ...

Coastal mangrove forests aren’t adapting rapidly enough to escape rising sea levels, and many could disappear by 2050 in much of the tropics, according to recent research published in Science. Authors of a study reported June 5 used sediment cores from 78 sites on five continents ...