Energy
Electricity production
Answers demanded on Mekong rapids
An activist who has been fighting for years against the planned dredging of sections of the Mekong River for greater shipping access has called on the authorities to clarify the status of the project, which was supposed to have been cancelled following a meeting between ...
Sustaining the heartbeat of the Mekong Basin
The Mekong has another point of origin: the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. Each year life springs from the lake, mostly in the form of a massive fish population that migrates to the far reaches of the Mekong system both upstream and downstream. This annual ...
Brian Eyler, Courtney Weatherby
Laos’ Deputy Prime Minister Blames PNPC Dam Collapse on Poor Planning
Laos’ deputy prime minister has identified poor soil analysis for a fatal hydropower dam collapse, often described as the country’s worst flooding in decades. At a concluding environmental sector annual meeting early this month in Vientiane, Deputy Prime Minister Bounthong Chitmany, who also heads the ...
Myanmar’s Myitsone Dam Dilemma
As the unpopular project sits in limbo, the government has to choose between upsetting China and enraging its own people. Keep reading ...
Will China decide the future of Myanmar’s rivers?
Chinese companies are pushing to resume destructive dam projects, ignoring a key assessment. Much media attention in Myanmar is focussed on China’s apparent efforts to revive the stalled Myitsone dam, its role in advising the Myanmar government on developing a new hydropower strategy white paper, and ...
Laos builds more dams, scientists worry about Mekong’s ecosystem
Instead of requesting additional data used in the building of Pak Lay hydroelectric dam in Laos, Dr Le Anh Tuan, a Mekong River expert and deputy head of the Institute for Climate Change Research at Can Tho University, believes that it would be better to ...
‘Commissions’ Required of Companies Bidding for Building Work in Flood-hit Lao Province
Construction firms bidding for approval to build permanent homes for flood victims in Laos must pay between 10 to 26 percent of the total cost of the project to local authorities if their bids are approved, sources in the country say. Government officials in Attapeu ...
Can Laos afford to be the ‘Battery of Asia’?
The debate over Laos’ strategy to become the “Battery of Asia” continues months after the deadly disaster at the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam, even as the Lao government keeps building more dams. Despite the previous government’s decision to suspend new dam projects and academics’ concerns ...
Delayed dam project awaits resolution in Myanmar
Though Myanmar officials have expressed their appreciation for the benefits of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese analysts noted that more practical outcomes should be delivered apart from optimistic plans, as some BRI projects still face uncertainty in the Southeast Asian country. A positive ...
Pak Beng Hydro Dam in Laos Meets New Resistance From Mekong River Advocates
An Environmental group in Chiang Rai has renewed its campaign against the controversial Pak Beng dam that is due to be built on the transnational Mekong River by lodging a complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court against Thai authorities for failing to provide local communities ...