Electricity production
Hydropower dams
Villagers in Laos and Thailand Suffer as China Opens the Floodgates on Mekong River Dams
Villagers living near the Mekong River in Thailand and Laos are finding it difficult to cope with sudden releases of water from dams upstream in China. More than 200 famililes living in Laos’ Bokeo province have suffered because of sudden increases in the height of the ...
Lao Government Begins Plan to Inspect 55 Dams One Year After PNPC Disaster
The Lao government is embarking on an plan to inspect all 55 dams in the country nearly one year after the collapse of a saddle dam that caused a disaster described as Laos’ worst flooding in decades. The disaster occurred on July 23, 2018, when a ...
It’s not just melting glaciers that endanger the Mekong and its region
Recent reports of a rapid diminishment in the size of the glaciers that feed the great rivers of Asia, including the Mekong, have received wide coverage, not least because they are accompanied by striking visuals. What is happening at the other end of the river in the ...
Milton Osborne
Chinese media is misleading the public on the impacts of hydro in Laos
Last month, the New York Times ran a piece of propaganda and misinformation masquerading as news. The piece was entitled “Employment on Hydropower Project in Laos Delivers Better Lives,” and it was created and paid for by the China Daily, the English-language mouthpiece for the People’s Republic ...
Crocodiles Are Not Geckos: The Realities Of Run-Of-River Hydropower
Too often, proponents of a specific dam apply this faulty logic and tell decision makers that a crocodile is really just a gecko. For example, the debate on the Xayaboury Dam on the Mekong River in Laos—a massive dam that, in terms of environmental and ...
Jeff Opperman
Laos approves Tadsakoi hydropower plant
The government has given the green light to Tadsakoi Power Company Limited to build the Tadsakoi hydropower project in Sepon district, Savannakhet province. A concession agreement for the project was signed recently in Vientiane between Minister of Planning and Investment, Dr Souphan Keomixay, Deputy Minister of ...
Phetsamone Chandala
Lao Authorities Allow Chinese Firm to Plant on Land Promised to Dam Collapse Survivors
A Chinese-backed firm is growing bananas on land promised by the government of Laos as compensation to survivors of a 2018 dam collapse that that has been described as the country’s worst flooding in decades, RFA’s Lao Service has learned. The disaster occurred last July, when ...
Interview: China’s Mekong Dam-building Mindset ‘Exported Downstream’ to Cambodia and Laos
The Mekong River extends for thousands of miles through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, supporting more than 65 million people who depend on it for food, transportation, and commerce. But development, mostly led by China, threatens to upset the delicate balance between local ...
Cambodia’s Dam Troubles, Power Woes Seen as Arguments For More Solar Energy Use
When the lights literally went out in many parts of Cambodia in February and stayed off in some areas during the following months, people immediately pointed their fingers at Prime Minister Hun Sen. They accused the mercurial autocrat who has ruled the country for more than ...
Opposition to Myitsone Dam Will Be Outgoing Chinese Ambassador’s Chief Legacy
It has been a busy week for the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar. Just a week after Beijing hosted the 2nd Belt and Road (BRI) forum, Hong Liang has been bustling around the government offices in Naypyitaw attending a series of meetings since Monday. So far, he ...
Nan Lwin
