Hydropower dams

The Thai government plans to divert water from rivers which form natural boundaries with Thailand’s neighbours into major dams in a long-term measure to battle drought. Suphot Tovichakchaikul, chief of the Department of Water Resources, said on 11 January that aside from the country’s local sources, water ...

Thailand’s Administrative Court on 25 December dismissed complaints over the Xayaburi Dam against five state agencies. However, the 37 plaintiffs, from eight Mekong provinces, say they will appeal further. The judge, who read the verdict, said the defendants had fully complied with their obligation according to the law, ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen inaugurated the new 246-megawatt Stung Tatai hydropower plant in Koh Kong on 23 December, saying that the dam will add to locally generated power and help bring down the cost of electricity. Built by the China National Heavy Machinery Corporation for ...

The Thai government approved a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 21 December to purchase electricity from the Nam Thuen 1 hydropower project in Laos. The draft MoU was endorsed by the National Energy Policy Committee chaired by Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, which will see Thailand ...

If there is one place most ill-equipped for a mega hydropower dam holding back cascades of water, it might very well be along a fault line. Yet China’s Myitsone project is slated for such a quake-prone site not far from the Sagaing Fault. In addition to ...

Major hydropower projects like the large-scale dams under way in Cambodia’s waterways are a “false solution” to climate change, according to a global coalition of 300 NGOs who are calling on parties at UN climate talks in Paris (COP21) to bar such schemes from climate ...

Households displaced by the massive Lower Sesan II hydropower dam project in Stung Treng province are being under-compensated by as much as $80,000, according to a new study. The research, published by the Rivers Coalition of Cambodia and led by political aspirant Kem Ley, found that ...

Sipandon – meaning 4,000 Islands – is an area of immense biodiversity, ecotourism and abundance of fish migration, but its survival is at serious risk from the hydropower Don Sahong dam, which is on the verge of construction. “If this special wetlands zone is protected, it ...

A Stanford University study conducted in Cambodia has shed new light on the natural introduction of the poison arsenic into groundwater – an established problem in Cambodia that could be exacerbated by hydrological development, particularly dams, researchers say. According to a report on their findings, published ...

More than 70 Vietnamese and international scientists and other experts and officials from ministries and international organisations discussed ongoing research into the impact of dams on the mainstream of the Mekong River at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on 4 December. At the conference ...