Electricity production
Hydropower dams
China unveils early warning and data sharing website to cooperate with Mekong River countries
China made good on its promise to share year-round hydrological data on upper reaches of the Mekong River with the kickoff of an online information sharing platform on Monday. The platform aims to provide reliable forecasting and early warning services related to floods and droughts. China ...
Hu Yuwei Source
Fight for the Mekong gathers pace
More than 20 years ago, when two Chiang Rai-based environmentalists, Niwat Roikaew and Somkiat Kuenwongsa, learned that the Chinese government were blasting rapids in the upper Mekong River from Yunnan to Myanmar and Laos to clear the way for large commercial vessels, they started worrying. Back ...
PASSAKORN JUMLONGRACH
Laos eyes more sales of electricity to Cambodia
Laos may sell more electricity to Cambodia in order to power development needs in the border area. An official at the Hat substation in Khong district, Mr Bounleud Keophasouk, told reporters on Tuesday when Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines Dr Sinava Souphanouvong visited the station ...
Khonesavanh Latsaphao
Collapsed dam rebuilt 2 years after catastrophic flood
Attapeu province: The Xe-PianXe-Namnoy hydropower project in Attapeu province has rebuilt a saddle dam at the reservoir after the previous one collapsed two years ago, causing a devastating flood. Project officials told visiting reporters on Wednesday that a new dam had been built not far from ...
Fight for the Mekong gathers pace
More than 20 years ago, when two Chiang Rai-based environmentalists, Niwat Roikaew and Somkiat Kuenwongsa, learned that the Chinese government were blasting rapids in the upper Mekong River from Yunnan to Myanmar and Laos to clear the way for large commercial vessels, they started worrying. Back ...
PASSAKORN JUMLONGRACH
Govt warns over Lao dam plan
The government threatened on Tuesday not to buy electricity from Sanakham dam in Laos after it learned the project might affect the Mekong River. “The country’s territory is our paramount concern,” Somkiat Prajamwong, secretary-general to the Office of National Water Resources, said on Tuesday after a seminar ...
APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
Severe storms show how dams, displacement magnify climate impacts in Laos
As a wave of storms drives flooding across Southeast Asia, a community in northern Laos displaced by a hydropower dam says their new homes are no longer safe due to the threat of landslides. Over 12,000 people have been relocated to allow for the construction of seven dams on the ...
Editorial
Explainer: How hydropower dams can help ASEAN fight climate change
Dams are infrastructures built to control river flow and store large amounts of water in artificial lakes or reservoirs. They are used not only for agricultural water supply and flood control, but also to produce electricity. The water released from dams flows through turbines, whose mechanical ...
Stefano Galelli
Controversial Luang Prabang Dam Construction Well Underway in Laos
Construction of the controversial Luang Prabang Dam on the Mekong River, near the ancient Lao capital of the same name, is making rapid headway, according to Lao energy officials. Access roads, including a 14-kilometer spur to the dam from a nearby highway and a road that ...
RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
China Strikes Deal With Fellow Mekong River Countries for Year-Round Data
China last week agreed to share year-round data from the upper Mekong River with downstream countries, where its dams are being blamed for muting the natural rhythms of one of Asia’s great waterways and adding to the pain of recent droughts. For the past 18 years, ...
Zsombor Peter