Disasters

The Mekong River’s water level during this year’s early flood season, from June to July, is among the lowest on record, according to the Mekong River Commission (MRC), with experts warning of impending consequences on the upcoming dry season in Vietnam. Water levels in the Mekong ...

Arthayudh Srisamoot, the Foreign Ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, had spoken to Chinese Ambassador Lyu Jian and Laos Ambassador Seng Soukhathivong on Tuesday following a media outcry about farmers suffering and the Mekong River running dry.  “This severe drought is a natural problem because we have had ...

On the first anniversary Tuesday of Laos’ Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy (PNPC) dam disaster, a new report from two NGOs found that nobody has been held accountable for the catastrophe that caused what has been described as Laos’ worst flooding in decades. In Reckless Endangerment: Assessing Responsibility for ...

On the night of July 23, 2018, water poured over a saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower project in Champassak, Laos, sweeping away homes and causing severe flooding in up to 12 villages downstream in Champassak and neighboring Attapeu province. The disaster, ...

Hundreds of millions of people across South and Southeast Asia depend on waters that originate in the long-frozen reaches of the Tibetan plateau. Yet, a sobering study shows that the melting of Himalayan glaciers has doubled in the last decade. The glaciers have been losing the equivalent ...

The Mekong River’s extremely low level of water caused by upstream hydropower dam projects has triggered the death of masses of fish and heightened the risk of mass extinction of aquatic life in the entire Mekong River Basin, environmental experts highlighted on Friday. They said that ...

Mekong River water levels that fell dramatically on Thursday under impact from dam operations will soon recover, says the national water management agency. Somkiat Prajumwong, secretary-general at the Office of National Water Resources (ONWR), offered the reassurance despite warnings from experts that the dams are destroying ...

It is now early on in the rainy season and the water volume on the Mekong River should have been high. But water levels on certain stretches of the international river, which runs from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, have reached their ...

The Royal Irrigation Department (RID) is speeding up efforts to mitigate the impacts of the looming drought after water levels in several major reservoirs fell below the levels of last year. Eighteen major reservoirs are holding less than 30% of their storage capacity including Pasak Jolasid ...

The water level in the Mekong river is the lowest level in 10 years, according to local media reports. The water level, 2.60m, is about 10 metres below the spill-over point on the Mekong river bank, which is 13m high. In the same period last year, ...