Water
Water resources
Formosa pays $500 mil compensation for marine disaster in central Vietnam
Taiwanese company Formosa Plastics, which caused deadly marine pollution in the central region by discharging untreated effluents, has paid up the US$500 million compensation it promised to, officials said. The environment ministry said on August 31 Formosa had transferred the second half of the promised amount a ...
More than half of south Asia's groundwater too contaminated to use – study
Salinity and arsenic affect 60% of underground supply across vast Indo-Gangetic Basin, according to research published in Nature Geoscience. Sixty per cent of the groundwater in a river basin supporting more than 750 million people in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh is not drinkable or usable ...
World water week to focus on achieving sustainable development goals
The 2016 World Water Week kicked off on August 29, focusing on water to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Opening the event, Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Angel Gurria said that water, from having been a subject that was rarely discussed ...
New community fisheries project to preserve Mekong's biodiversity
A new community fisheries project in the Mekong River was launched in Vientiane on August 28 with the Department of Livestock and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry agreeing to cooperate with the Worldwide Fund for Nature. A memorandum of understanding was signed by the DLF’s Deputy ...
Dams inevitably result in species decline, losses on reservoir islands
Hydropower development is booming, with controversial projects unfolding across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. Though often presented as a green renewable energy option, dams can cause a litany of negative impacts: disrupting the downstream flow of nutrients, interrupting aquatic migration routes and harming fisheries. They ...
Blind dolphins in Ganga waterway
National waterways, starting with the Ganga, are being pushed as eco-friendly transport; nobody seems to have thought about the effect on the endangered Gangetic River Dolphin or the other life in the river. In March 2016, India passed the National Waterways Act, which marks 106 rivers ...
Vietnam seeks French support for 'maritime freedom'
France and other countries should help to keep the peace in the disputed South China Sea, Vietnam’s president told AFP on August 24, as unease grows over China’s increasingly muscular approach in the key waterway. China claims most of the sea where it has built up ...
Shan community groups want Salween dams scrapped
Representatives of Shan communities have expressed serious concerns on the ongoing plan to construct a series of hydropower dams on the Salween River, saying many areas are still plagued with ongoing fighting between minority groups and the government. Shan State Rivers Network’s coordinator Sai Khur Hseng ...
Chinese dams a threat to Lower Mekong River
One of the main issues facing nations in the Mekong River Commission, including Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, is that China has refused to share information about the operations of its hydropower dams. As a result, the MRC countries are cautious about using their limited ...
Vietnamese farmers indignant as Mekong Delta prays for flood waters to arrive
Fishermen in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta have been complaining about lower water levels and falling catches with experts blaming China’s construction of hydropower projects on the upper Mekong River. According to the experts, the dams have blocked fish from moving downstream and trapped sediment needed to enrich ...
