Electricity production
Hydropower dams
Dams destroy the Mekong and damage tourism
Every day thousands of tourists soak up life on the Mekong River, the seventh longest river in Asia. They take cruises, stay at boutique hotels or tuck into a grand lunch at a riverside restaurant. The river is the most compelling reason they travel to a ...
Don Ross
Will climate change spell the end of coal and hydropower in the Mekong?
This year has been rough for the 70 million people who call the Mekong River basin home: a severe drought rocked the region for months before yielding to deadly flooding. The Mekong slowed to its lowest level in recorded history, knocking the world’s largest freshwater fishery—Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake—out of ...
Skylar Lindsay
Laos' Luang Prabang dam reaches key development stage
The Luang Prabang hydropower project has reached another key development stage after the government asked the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to host the prior consultation on the project. The government authorised the Vietnam Petro Power Corporation to build the Luang Prabang hydro plant in 2007. As ...
Ekaphone Phouthonesy
Mekong River Commission Defends Seven-Week Silence on Lao Dam Project Submission
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) Wednesday defended its decision to wait nearly seven weeks before officially notifying the public that Laos began a preliminary procedure for the construction of a large dam that would be its fifth on the Mekong river. The Lao government informed the ...
Laos to go ahead with Luang Prabang dam project despite warnings
The government of Laos has officially informed the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) of its plan to build a new dam in Luang Prabang, despite warnings about the project’s environmental effects. “We confirm that the MRC Secretariat has received the notification from the Lao government on the Luang ...
Andrew Nachemson
Mekong record low raises hydropower questions
An elderly fisherman anchored his small boat to the bank of the Mekong in north-eastern Thailand. Inside lay his morning catch of three fat barbs. “We can catch plenty of fish,” said Thong-in Wenkham with a thin smile, “It’s easy for us when the water level is low like this. “I ...
Pratch Rujivanarom
Thai NGOs Speak Out Against Proposed Dam in Laos
A new dam planned for construction on the Mekong River in Laos is causing great concern for environmental NGOs from Thailand, who say Laos’ fifth big dam on the river will have adverse effects on fish and people in the region. The Luangprabang hydropower project would ...
From Pak Mun to Xayaburi: It’s time to rethink hydroelectric dams along the Mekong
The rising demand for electricity is often touted as a reason for building dams. But the proponents of dams conveniently overlook the impact on those living on the river banks and the destruction of ecosystems. Ever since the Pak Mun dam was built in Ubon ...
Kanokwan Manorom
The Mekong Part II: How Dams May Damage Children’s Health
Ian G. Baird, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on dams in Southeast Asia, tells of meeting a farmer and his five-year-old son from a village in rural Laos in 2009. The two were sitting in a canoe as the sun rose ...
Dan Southerland
Tonlé Sap Ecosystem is threatened by Development of Hydropower Dams on the Mekong River
Every year, between May and October, floodwaters from the Lower Mekong Basin reverse the flow of the Tonlé River in Cambodia. That pushes sediment-rich waters into the Tonlé Sap Lake and its surrounding floodplains and forests, which support complex food webs, migration patterns and agricultural ...
Kitila Davies
