The other side of the Mekong development debate
China’s Mekong development plan has stirred debate as potentially becoming an environmental and social peril for downstream Mekong countries. The country’s navigation channel improvement plan has recently attracted attention from environmentalists, activists, and the media alike.The pace has picked up since the middle of this ...
Phan Tuan Phan (CEO, MRC)
Is sustainable development along the Mekong possible?
[] Sustainable development of the Mekong basin is too important to be persistently ignored. Approximately 284 million people, including around 400 ethno-linguistic groupings, live on the Mekong River. A majority of Mekong communities are considered “primary producers,” as they rely on the river’s ecosystems for their survival through ...
Linh Tong
63rd joint patrol on Mekong River completed
The 63rd joint patrol on the Mekong River with law enforcers from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand was completed on Sunday. Keep reading ...
Xinhua News Staff
Mekong hydro resource coordination gets boost from France
Laos and France have agreed to enhance cooperation in the energy sector and improve the management of water resources on the Mekong River by building a new Coordination and Monitoring Centre (CMC). The centre will be equipped to monitor hydroelectric power project (HPP) development on ...
Phetphoxay Sengpaseuth
RID backs off on Mae Wong Dam project
The Royal Irrigation Department (RID) has withdrawn it’s environment and health impact assessment (EHIA) report on the Mae Wong Dam project after it is considered incomplete. Keep reading ...
Thai PBS News Staff
Pak Beng dam meets stiffer new resistance
An environmental group in Chiang Rai has renewed its campaign against the controversial Pak Beng dam that is due to be built on the transnational Mekong River by lodging a complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court against Thai authorities for failing to provide local communities ...
Water resource bill: death of small-scale rice farmers?
[] Last month, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) introduced a Water Resource Bill. Although the bill seems to target large industries, the bill will also charge 0.50 baht per cubic metre of water from rice farmers with more than 50 rai (8 ...
Myanmar working to preserve eco-system in coastal areas, improve water management
As part of its environment protection efforts, Myanmar, a signatory of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, is taking measures targeting the conservation of the eco-system in coastal areas and striving to improve water resources management in the country. Keep reading ...
Flood control ‘lacking’
Cambodia and Vietnam currently lack a system to effectively forecast and control flooding in the Sesan and Srepok river basins, both at the national and intergovernmental level, according to a study published by the Mekong River Commission (MRC). Keep reading ...
Yesenia Amaro
China’s Mekong plans threaten disaster for countries downstream
Thirty million people depend for a living on the Mekong, the great Asian river that runs through Southeast Asia from its origins in the snowfields of Tibet to its end in the delta region of Vietnam, where it fertilizes one of the world’s richest agricultural ...
Richard Bernstein