Electricity production
Hydropower dams
The last 92 Irrawaddy dolphins in Mekong River may not survive
Experts are concerned that the Mekong dolphin is unlikely to survive Cambodia’s modernisation as a new dam is planned. It says, “building dams destroy habitats” and lists threats to dolphins, including pollutions and gillnets. It looks like an insect-eaten papyrus. The Irrawaddy dolphin is a critically endangered ...
Nathan A. Thompson
Researchers seek alternatives to Mekong River hydropower dam
The Mekong River, flowing from the Tibetan Plateau through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the South China Sea, is a hotbed of ecological diversity. The roughly 60 million people who live in the region, many in poverty, depend on the river and its ...
Lao Dam Collapse Creates Hardship for Student Far From Floodwaters
Laos’ worst flooding in decades — the rupture of a dam in July that inundated 12 villages and killed at least 43 people, leaving hundreds more missing – is still reverberating far away in the capital of the poor, landlocked country. Survivors of the flooding ...
After a Long Boom, an Uncertain Future for Big Dam Projects
A timely analysis piece by Yale Environment 360 on the rise of wind and solar power, coupled with the increasing social, environmental and financial costs of hydropower projects, could spell the end of an era of big dams. But even anti-dam activists say it’s too early ...
Temporary shelters set up for residents affected by dam collapse in Laos
An under-construction saddle dam of the Xe Pian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower project, collapsed on July 23, unleashing a large amount of water into some 13 villages of Sanamxay district, some 560 km southeast of Lao capital Vientiane. Keep reading ...
More talk on Pak Bang Dam, but is anyone listening?
THE THAI delegation at a meeting this week on a third dam planned for the Lower Mekong River at Pak Bang in Laos urged the Chinese project developer, Datang Corp, to conduct a transboundary study to resolve outstanding issues. The developer appeared hesitant to take ...
More Southeast Asian Dam Disasters Likely Unless Funders Ensure Higher Standards
The Lao dam disaster in July that resulted in heavy flooding in two provinces that left at least 40 people dead and displaced 7,000 others has drawn both regional and international attention to the potential dangers of Southeast Asia’s current dam-building spree. With plans for ...
Collapsed Lao dam ‘was built on a sinkhole’
The site of a tragic dam collapse in southern Laos three months ago was geologically unsuitable for such a project, an American engineer has claimed. Richard Meehan is an MIT-trained engineer who teaches at Stanford University in the United States, who has experience in designing and ...
In Laos, a World Bank 'model' dam and the myth of sustainable hydropower
It wasn’t a flood. It was a tsunami, Premrudee Daorung said of the wall of water that tore through the forests of Laos’ Attapeu province, snapping timber like matchsticks and flattening entire villages. Keep reading ...
The Promise and Pitfalls of Hydropower Development Along the Mekong River
The collapse of a dam this summer in southeastern Laos, which triggered massive flooding that killed dozens and displaced thousands of people, has brought a renewed focus on hydroelectric dams in mainland Southeast Asia. Proponents of hydroelectric dams argue they will bring benefits in the ...
