Hydropower dams

Mekong River levels are expected to rise as hydropower dams in the Upper Basin begin releasing water from upstream reservoirs. These dry season releases will affect the river’s natural flow, experts said, altering livelihoods across the basin. Regional specialists tracking the ebb and flow of the ...

For Pianporn Deetes, the Mekong is more than a river. “This is not just liquid, but this is the entire life-supporting system,” Deetes, a local activist, said recently on a wooden long-tail boat heading upstream in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. The Mekong, one of the world’s longest waterways, runs about ...

Last year, more data was shared about the Mekong than ever before. Yet despite the increased openness enabled by the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) mechanism, the Mekong River Commission (MRC), and various NGOs, the wet season was still marred by low rainfall levels and controversy over retention ...

For generations, Vietnamese communities have used the ample water resources and fertile soil of the Mekong Delta to feed the nation. Fuelled by the Mekong’s constant supply of rich sediment, the fisheries and paddy fields of Vietnam’s southernmost region have long been the bedrock of Vietnam’s ...

The law will cover dams and hydropower installations and set standards or quality control procedures for each phase of construction, Lao National Radio reports. Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Mr. Sinava Souphanouvong, spoke during a conference held to discuss the draft law on hydropower safety that ...

China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam have all been urged to take steps to address regional low flows, water fluctuations and drought as the Lower Mekong River experiences record low flows for the third consecutive year. The Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat has said that ...

After years of hydropower supercharging Laos’ successful ambition to become the key power exporter in the region, Laos’ energy export market has taken a surprising turn towards coal. According to most international analysis from Carbon Tracker to Bloomberg, carbon is dying. Yet in Laos, energy carbon production went ...

There was a time when scores of some of the world’s largest freshwater fishes swam up the Mekong River, past the Laotian town of Luang Prabang, now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Giant catfish the size of grizzly bears, seven-striped barb, giant pangasius, and other huge fish once made ...

Plans for a new water diversion project in Thailand are alarming environmentalists. And a Chinese state-owned firm offered to finance it, raising flags with those who fear China’s growing influence. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: In Thailand, plans for an ambitious water diversion project are raising lots of questions ...

The flooding of land for hydroelectric dams has affected more than one-fifth of the world’s tigers (Panthera tigris) and one in two hundred jaguars (Panthera onca), according to the findings of a new study published Dec. 9 in the journal Communications Biology. Seen by some as a low-carbon solution ...