Energy
Laos to proceed with seventh Mekong dam despite impact concerns
Pressing ahead with its vision to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia,” the government of Laos is going forward with plans to build its seventh of nine mainstream dams on the Mekong River, despite widespread concerns that it could inflict social and environmental damage. The 728-megawatt ...
Translated by Sidney Khotpanya. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
Plan to Move Vietnam to Carbon Neutrality Faces Hurdles
HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM — Vietnam’s long-awaited national power development plan, aimed at achievement of carbon neutrality by 2050, was approved by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on May 16, but faces obstacles in implementation and funding. Delayed by more than two years, the plan, known ...
Govi Snell
Bangkok’s ‘Hazibition’ points finger at corporations for toxic haze in lower Mekong
Thailand’s clean air campaigners are staging an exhibition in Bangkok to show how industrial-scale maize cultivation to produce animal feed is partly responsible for the toxic annual smog in the lower Mekong region. “Hazibition,” an exhibition on haze pollution by environment group Greenpeace, started Tuesday at ...
Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA
Finding opportunity in Asia’s net-zero transition
The Asia-Pacific region is witnessing a surge in climate action, with nearly all countries in the region committing to achieving net-zero emissions, albeit with varying timeframes and specifics for implementation. One of the primary driving forces behind this growing momentum for climate action is the economic benefits it ...
Muyi Yang
Pointing out culprits of Mekong’s problems is not our mission: MRC Secretariat CEO
The 4th Mekong River Commission Summit, held in Vientiane on 4-5 April 2023, saw heads of state and ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam come together to discuss the sustainable development of Southeast Asia’s greatest river. At its conclusion, the four countries signed the ‘Vientiane Declaration’, in ...
Aron White, thethirdpole.net
Don’t jump to conclusions over data on distressed Mekong River, says China official
A Chinese official in a Mekong River intergovernmental body has warned against jumping to conclusions about data on the distressed waterway, saying that politics may get in the way of closer cooperation between upstream and downstream countries along the waterway. “Some parties start with preconceptions, and ...
Tan Hui Yee/The Straits Times
Robust river governance key to restoring Mekong River vitality in face of dams
Niwat Roykaew, an environmental activist based in Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand, described the Mekong as a naga, a mythical water serpent and symbol of fertility that brings abundance to the entire region. The river, which flows across the borders of six countries, supports a vast ...
Carolyn Cowan
As hydropower dams quell the Mekong’s life force, what are the costs?
The Mekong River carves a vast aquatic lifeline through Asia. Rising in glacial streams high in the Tibetan plateau, the river morphs as it tumbles south through rocky ravines, steep-sided valleys and expansive flooded forests to the South China Sea. Its influence is immense: over ...
Carolyn Cowan
New generation takes up cudgels against dam construction on Salween River
“When the Salween runs dry and we can cross it, that would be the end of the world,” is a saying widely believed by generations of locals who live on the banks of the river in Mae Hong Son province. In a proactive move, the ...
Thai PBS World
China's Mekong dams turn Thai fishing villages into 'ghost towns'
CHIANG KHONG, Thailand: From February to April each year, Kam Thon spends most of her days knee-deep in the waters of the Mekong River by her village in northern Thailand, gathering river weed to sell and cook at home. Kam Thon and other women who live ...
RINA CHANDRAN, THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION
