Energy
Electricity production
Will the Mekong River Really Become the Next South China Sea?
In recent years, the fate of Southeast Asia’s great river – the Mekong – has attracted growing international scrutiny. The Mekong faces many challenges, from the impacts of climate change and saline encroachment in its delta, to dam developments on the headwaters of the river ...
Sebastian Strangio
Cambodian mega dam’s resurrection on the Mekong ‘the beginning of the end’
A long-dormant plan to build a mega dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River in Cambodia’s northeastern Stung Treng province appears to have been revived this year, leaving locals immediately downstream of the potential sites worried and experts confounded. First studied in 2007, the 1,400-megawatt ...
Gerald Flynn, Nehru Pry
Ministry proposes importing electricity from Laos
Electricity imports from Laos should be taken into account due to a possible power shortage in northern Vietnam from 2022 to 2025, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has written to the Prime Minister proposing a plan to ...
The Saigon Times
In the Mekong Basin, an ‘unnecessary’ dam poses an outsized threat
“I remember seeing a buffalo, its head tied to a floating barrel, drifting down the river,” says Pheng Sisuwath, gesturing to the Sekong River from his stilt house in Cambodia’s northeastern province of Stung Treng. That was four years ago, when one of the auxiliary dams ...
Gerald Flynn, Nehru Pry
Minebea Cambodia announces $45M, 50MW solar farm
Japanese-owned electronics manufacturer Minebea (Cambodia) Co Ltd has unveiled plans for a $45 million 50MW solar farm to power its production and feed into the national grid, in support of eco-friendly, renewable energy source development. Minebea Cambodia operates a single factory in the Kingdom, in the ...
Hom Phanet
Overall Mekong River flow patterns do not change–report finding
Two hydropower projects along Southeast Asia’s most important river have had measurable, but moderate, impact on water flow, sediment and fisheries, according to preliminary findings of a report by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) released last week. With roughly one year of monitoring data, the MRC ...
Vientiane Times/Asia News Network
Thai court throws out decade-long legal fight over Laos dam
A top Thai court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to halt purchases of electricity by the country from a hydropower dam in neighbouring Laos over environmental concerns, bringing an end to a decade-long legal battle. The case brought by 37 villagers from eight provinces along ...
Reuters
Myanmar’s electricity woes fueling mangrove deforestation in Arakan State
Deforestation of mangroves has increased in Arakan State as a result of power cuts, according to local mangrove conservationists. Since late last year, Myanmar has experienced frequent blackouts, which worsened in February and continued into the monsoon season despite the fact that hydropower is the country’s ...
Development Media Group
Cambodia’s small-scale hydropower offers potential and risk
The stiff, rusted grate forming a metal ramp scraped its stone anchor and bent under Lounh Samnang’s weight as he clambered onto the small-scale dam he operates and maintains. Water rushed from the reservoir and gurgled through the dam’s turbine before flowing down O’Porng Morn Kraom, a ...
ANTON L. DELGADO AND NASA DIP
‘Hungry river’ phenomenon to blame for severe erosion of Mekong River banks in Laos
Upstream dams and sand mining have caused significant erosion along the Mekong River in western Laos, according to experts, devastating riparian communities in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation with high waters and powerful currents. But residents of those communities say they believe that other issues are to ...
RFA Lao; Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.