Energy
Electricity production
Running on fumes: Fuel importers denounce new forex policy
As Myanmar’s military leaders relaxed with family members in Pyin Oo Lwin and Nay Pyi Taw for this year’s water festival in April, a crisis was slowly building in the waters off Yangon. Oil tankers from Singapore were bobbing in the Gulf of Mottama, refusing to ...
FRONTIER
Beijing fiddles with the water taps that control Southeast Asian economies
Southeast Asian nations are eyeing Beijing nervously as it fiddles with the water taps that control their economies. But their citizens are alarmed at failed fish migrations and wildly fluctuating river levels. Now they’ve taken their anger to the world. After four years of drought, the ...
Jamie Seidel
A win for Kru Ti and the Mekong River
Over the past 20 years, Niwat Roykaew, a teacher, activist and founder of the Chiang Khong Conservation Group in Chiang Rai province has been campaigning to bolster the grassroots movement he initiated to protect the Mekong River, a crucial lifeline for countries in the Mekong ...
PASKORN JUMLONGRACH
Diplomacy is indispensable to manage the Mekong
Milton Osborne mischaracterises the Mekong River Commission when writing last month in The Interpreter that the regional organisation “ignores reality”. To say we were “celebrating” the health of the river at our Mekong Day event on 5 April overlooks the fact that on that day I continued ...
ANOULAK KITTIKHOUN
Laos Pushes Forward With Seventh Mekong River Dam Project
Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported this week that officials in Laos will soon take an important step forward on a new hydropower project, the seventh large-scale dam project to be undertaken on the mainstream of the Mekong River. The report cited an unnamed government official as saying that ...
Sebastian Strangio
Another Mekong River dam in Laos begins review process
Lao officials will soon submit plans for the Phou Ngoy Dam and hydropower plant to the Mekong River Commission for review, but villagers whose livelihoods would be hurt by the construction worry they will be left out of the process. Thailand’s Charoen Energy and Water Asia ...
Mekong River water level rises amid dry season
Lower Mekong River water levels have increased by 20-30 percent compared to the same period of previous years as China releases dam water. According to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, the Mekong Delta region, where the Mekong River reaches the sea, has received a volume ...
Ngoc Tai
How the Mekong River Commission ignores reality
Among the many “days” celebrated by the international community, one entrant seems especially incongruous. “Mekong Day” was proclaimed by the Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) headquarters in Vientiane to celebrate the signature of the “Agreement on the Cooperation and Sustainable Development of the Mekong River”, which took place ...
MILTON OSBORNE
Housing for Attapeu Flood Victims Still Unfinished
New homes for victims of the 2018 dam collapse in Attapeu Province have yet to be completed nearly four years after the disaster. KPL reports that Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Ms.Suansavanh Vignaket, visited villagers in Sanamxay District, Attapeu Province, yesterday. She toured the area and spoke with local ...
Manyphone Vongphachanh
Cooperation key on Mekong issues
In the coming months, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) will host a unique competition for university students from our four member countries: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The objective is to see which team can develop the most effective, cost-efficient and sustainable technology to monitor water ...
ANOULAK KITTIKHOUN