Water policy and related institutions

Vietnam must improve the management of its numerous reservoirs to protect the rights and interests of residents in the downstream areas, and to optimise the efficiency of its water management and hydropower projects, experts said during a conference on the subject last week. Experts said the ...

Hydrologists have warned about imminent flooding in the Red River in northern Vietnam due to huge discharge of water from upstream reservoirs in China.   Water levels in the river rose to 31.7 m in Yen Bai Province on 12 October before receding, according to the National Center ...

The Thai government’s statement in late July that it is considering bringing water from the Mekong, Moei and Salween rivers to farmland to nine of its provinces has raised major concerns.  The water diversion has been described as a move to ‘extract blood from the Mekong’s ...

People in Vietnam hope Thailand will reconsider its plan to divert water from the Mekong, because it would seriously affect their ability to produce food. The Mekong Delta is Vietnam’s most important agricultural area. Each year, the area produces the most rice and fruit in the country. This region ...

A new waste water treatment plant, the largest of its kind in the Mekong Delta, was put into operation on Saturday in Tra Noc Industrial Park in Can Tho, Vietnam. At the completion of the first phase of the project, the new waste water treatment facility can ...

A network of Thais living along the Mekong River have voiced their concern about a plan to divert water from the river to special economic zones. “Careful studies must be conducted before such a plan is implemented,” said network representative Jintana Kaysornsombat, who described the plan as a ...

The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority has categorically denied reports that Bangkok’s tap water supply would last only 30 more days if there was no rain. MWA governor Thanasak Watanathana said possible tap water disruption in a month was based on the assumption there would be no rainfall. ...

China’s plan to cut carbon emissions commits Beijing to a surge in construction of ecologically destructive hydropower dams that heralds the end of free-flowing rivers in the country, experts say. Beijing last week formally submitted its 2030 goals for generating energy from non-fossil fuels, garnering international praise as nations ...

The environmental group International Rivers has called on Laos to suspend construction of a major dam on the Mekong River and to continue talks with its concerned neighbours downstream. The Don Sahong Dam, which would spread across the river just above the Cambodian border, is a ...

Laos has announced that it will submit the proposed Don Sahong dam on the Mekong River for “prior consultation” within a regional mechanism but will not suspend development of the controversial project that has been criticized by its neighbors and environmentalists. Previously, Laos has refused to comply with a ...