Infrastructure
Water and sanitation
Governors ordered to set up flood prevention and assistance centres
The Interior Ministry on September 25 ordered governors of provinces nationwide except in the South to set up flood prevention and alleviation centres to deal with ongoing flooding in many provinces. The order was issued by Interior Ministry permanent secretary Krissada Boonraj. Krissada stated in the order ...
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 ...
Japan readies 100bn yen in lending for Myanmar
Japan plans to extend about $994 million in low-interest lending to Myanmar for such projects as railways and water treatment plants, the latest step in Tokyo’s push to bolster ties with the Southeast Asian country. This would mark Japan’s first development financing initiative for Myanmar since ...
Why 'partnerships for sustainable development' counts as an essential sustainable development goal
Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the 17th is the odd one out. As “Partnerships for the Goals”, it is a goal that helps you get to the other 16 goals. For most businesses committed to sustainable development, however, this 17th goal may be the ...
Government and civil society groups meet for flood aid
Ensuring better coordination was the objective of an August 11 meeting between government officials and civil society groups in Magwe Region. The goal was to strengthen the network of civil society groups to ensure the proper distribution of aid supplies for flood victims while avoiding ...
Vietnam cancels water pipe deal with China supplier over quality concern
State-owned construction firm Vinaconex has backed out of a deal to use pipes from a Chinese company to fix an unreliable water supply system in Hanoi amid concerns over the quality of the replacement. Viwasupco, the water utility subsidiary of Vinaconex, said in a new statement ...
World Bank approves loan to poverty reduction fund
On 13 July, the Ministry of Finance signed a US$30 million agreement with the World Bank aimed at continuing to finance Laos’ Poverty Reduction Fund, improving livelihoods and upgrading infrastructure for residents of 150 rural villages in over 40 districts of 10 target provinces. The funding will ...
Compensation for mining company’s ‘poisoning’ not enough: plaintiffs
People in Tak province say nothing has been done about removing cadmium contamination from their water source, while the Appeals Court on 12 July upheld the Civil Court’s earlier ruling against zinc-mining companies on the leakage of toxins into the Mae Tao River Basin. The Southern ...
Drought relief campaign over: PM
The government’s emergency campaign to distribute water to some 2.5 million people affected by drought is over, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen declared on 25 May, though for development partners and humanitarian groups, drought relief efforts continue. Humanitarian and disaster reduction manager for Save the Children ...
