Disasters and emergency response
Dams lift discharge rate, flooding downstream
The Chao Phraya Dam on Wednesday increased its discharge rate, sending a huge volume of water downstream, where four villages in Bang Ban district of Ayutthaya were flooded. Extra water is also being released from the Pasak Jolasid Dam, with flood warnings for five central provinces. The Chao ...
SUNTHON PONGPAO AND ONLINE REPORTERS
China Courts Vietnam With More COVID-19 Vaccines, Mistrust Remains
Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi concluded a three-day visit to Vietnam, making him the second high-ranking Chinese official to have visited the country since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019 and early 2020. Wang’s trip to Hanoi came on the heels ...
Hai Hong Nguyen
Thai students suffer inequality and poor mental health as pandemic lingers
At a protest earlier this month, a large banner was unfurled on the side of an overpass that read, “1.8 million children are about to fall out of the school system due to online instruction that doesn’t give a shit about them.” A young girl ...
MARK S. COGAN
Droughts and political risk challenge hydro’s place in energy mixture
The Minister for Mines and Energy is giving nothing away on how hydropower figures in Cambodia’s draft power development plan (PDP). However, he did say the PDP would not turn its back on established power sources, such as coal- and oil-fired power plants because of ...
Michael Firn / Khmer Times
Vietnamese Facebook User Fined for ‘Fake News’ as Criticism Grows of Government’s Handling of Pandemic
Police in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City have fined a local Facebook user for saying that local government has neglected city residents and let them go hungry amid lockdowns aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19, sources said. Nguyen Thuy Duong was fined VND 5 million ...
RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Richard Finney
Forest fires linked to tens of thousands of avoidable deaths
Setting fire to forest and agricultural land in Southeast Asia to prepare it for cultivation or grazing contributes to an estimated 59,000 premature deaths a year, say scientists. Their analysis reveals that the greatest health impact from the burning, which releases tiny particles into the air ...
University of Leeds
Thailand to allow local flights to resume in COVID-19 risk areas
Thailand will allow some domestic flights to and from Bangkok and other high risk areas for COVID-19 to resume from Sep 1, the country’s aviation authority said on Sunday (Aug 29), to help boost economic activity. The announcement follows the easing of tough restrictions in 29 ...
CNA
Many fishing boats in Mekong Delta stay ashore
Many localities in the Mekong Delta are currently undergoing social distancing according to Directive No.16 of the Prime Minister, so trade activities of seafood products encounter difficulties, dragging prices down, causing many fishing boats to operate ineffectively. Besides, the fishing grounds are increasingly depleted, and ...
By Tan Thai – Translated by Thanh Nha
Wet-season dam operations hit Mekong ecology and communities
In early July 2021, Chinese dams began restricting the flow of the Upper Mekong. Researchers and activists say the consequences downstream are unknown and potentially severe. As China celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party on 1 July, the Jinghong dam in Yunnan Province began restricting ...
Tyler Roney, The Third Pole
Cambodian dam a ‘disaster’ for local communities, rights group says
The Lower Sesan 2 hydroelectric scheme was completed in northeast Cambodia in 2018. The reservoir flooded 300 square kilometers (116 square miles) upstream of the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers, two tributaries of the Mekong. Villages, places of worship, ancestral burial grounds and ...
Carolyn Cowan
