Hydropower dams

Construction of a $100 million dam project and the largest reservoir in Battambang province is 98 percent complete and scheduled to be finished before Khmer New Year in April. The Battambang Multipurpose Dam, located in Ratanak Mondul district’s Plov Meas commune, has dikes connecting one mountain ...

During a visit to the Lao border on January 10, Prime Minister Hun Sen thanked the government of Laos for “selling electricity at a cheap price to Cambodia”. Experts, however contend a continued reliance on energy imports means prices will invariably remain high for consumers. ...

The critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin’s population in the Mekong is “stabilising”, the World Wildlife Fund said on December 27. With the sighting of 10 new dolphin calves and six reported deaths in the past year, 2016 saw a 30 percent drop in the mortality rate ...

With persistent concerns expressed by India about China’s exploitation of the Yarlung Zangbo River, upstream from the Brahmaputra River in India, officials and scholars should study the possibility of borrowing on the experience of the Lancang-Mekong cooperation mechanism to resolve disputes along trans-boundary rivers. The ...

A break in a critical waterway shut down a hydro-electric dam in southern Laos and raised questions about the quality of construction at the facility that sends most of the power it generates to Vietnam. While officials said the Dec. 16 break in the Xekaman ...

Electricity of Việt Nam on December 20 inaugurated the Lai Châu hydro-electricity plant in Nam Nhun District in the northern mountain province of Lai Châu. The plant has begun operations one year ahead of the National Assembly’s resolution. The VNĐ35.7 trillion (US$1.6 billion) plant has ...

A leading Chinese manufacturer of power transmission and distribution equipment recently visited Cambodia to explore opportunities in the Kingdom’s rapidly growing energy sector, including a proposal for a factory to produce equipment for the electricity sector. The Ministry of Mines and Energy met representatives of ...

As construction on the Don Sahong dam near the Cambodia-Laos border passes its halfway point, activists and locals are increasingly concerned over the disappearance of Irawaddy dolphins and incidences of illness they suspect are caused by the muddied water. “The waters downstream in Cambodia have ...

Humility is a rare commodity in the era of the smartphone, selfies and carefully–coiffed digital personas. Gratitude, too, is unusual in the modern world where a sense of entitlement seems all pervasive. Despite most of us being aware enough to acknowledge that all human beings ...

Laos needs to rethink its aggressive hydropower plans as new markets and technologies create an opportunity to change course. A report published in September by the Stimson Center, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, challenges prevailing notions about the future of hydropower in the Mekong subregion, an ...