Disasters and emergency response
Officials to meet on Mekong crisis as fishing communities suffer
On Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, record low water levels have plunged fishing communities into crisis but with warnings of “severe drought”, there are concerns the situation will get even worse. “Every day we can only find about one or two kilogrammes (two or four pounds) of fish, ...
Leonie Kijewski
MRC countries agree to collectively manage drought
The Mekong River Commission Council yesterday approved a five-year strategy until 2025 which allows Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to prepare for and manage drought collectively. The approval comes as the MRC’s preliminary data analysis shows that severe to extreme drought is expected to hit countries ...
Pech Sotheary
NASA space data can cut disaster response times, costs
According to a new study, emergency responders could cut costs and save time by using near-real-time satellite data along with other decision-making tools after a flooding disaster. In the first NASA study to calculate the value of using satellite data in disaster scenarios, researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space ...
Jessica Merzdorf
Vientiane Vision 2.0 Puts Japan’s Asia Security Role into Focus
One of the significant but under noticed developments at this year’s ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-related (ADMM) meetings in Bangkok was Japan’s launching of a sequel to its defense initiative for Southeast Asian states, termed Vientiane Vision 2.0. The development once again put the focus on ...
Prashanth Parameswaran
Asia's twin curse: Dams and droughts
River systems help sustain lives and livelihoods. But, thanks to excessive damming and drastic overuse of their water resources, some rivers are drying up before reaching the sea. Nowhere is this truer than Asia. Building large dams has increasingly run into grassroots opposition in established democracies ...
Brahma Chellaney
Asean climate crises loom after decades of abuse
Farmers along the Mekong have been told to expect a worse drought than the brutal water shortages that gripped the region before this year’s rains arrived. Severe or extreme drought is forecast to affect Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam before the next wet season, threatening agricultural production. The Mekong ...
Taylor McDonald
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam may face severe drought
Severe to extreme drought is expected to hit the four lower Mekong River Basin countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam from now until January, threatening agricultural production, experts warned Tuesday. The Mekong River Commission, in a statement, said the drought has so far brought the ...
Govt attempts to rebuild flood victims’ lives amid budget constraints
The government estimates that about 3 trillion kip is needed to repair the damage caused by recent flooding and to restore flood-hit communities to normal. The impacts of disasters are a major challenge for Laos in working towards poverty eradication, with many families now lacking housing ...
Phetphoxay Sengpaseuth
Mekong water level in Nakhon Phanom drops amid drought fears
The level of water in the Mekong river in this northeastern border province is dropping rapidly, exhibiting the most unnatural phenomenon in 50 years, according to local media reports. The reports said water in the Mekong river is dropping by 10-20 centimetres per day. The water ...
Land subsidence a big threat to Mekong Delta
Land subsidence is worsening in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, and experts told a recent seminar in Can Tho city that over-exploitation of groundwater is one of the factors causing it. Do Duc Dung, head of the Southern Institute of Water Resources Planning, told the seminar organised by Can ...
