Environment and natural resources
Hong Kong cleans up 93 tonnes of palm oil, shuts 13 beaches after huge spill
Hong Kong stepped up efforts on Wednesday to clean up a massive palm oil spill, with authorities scooping up more than 90 tonnes of foul-smelling, styrofoam-like clumps in one of the worst environmental disasters to blight the territory’s waters. Dead fish, shells, rocks, plastic bottles ...
Early floods threaten Mekong rice fields
Early season flooding and heavy rainfall have severely damaged thousands of hectares of rice fields in the Mekong Delta province of Long An. Water levels in the province hit 2.37m on August 4, 1.53m higher than the previous year’s figure. Water levels rose approximately 5-10cm ...
Illegal waste pollutes Mỹ Khê Beach
A section of Mỹ Khê Beach in the central city of Đà Nẵng, considered one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in Việt Nam, has been heavily polluted by untreated waste water illegally discharged from a construction project.Keep reading ...
Plain of Jars ready for submission for UNESCO certification next year
L aos will make a submission to UNESCO to include the Plain of Jars in Xieng Khuang province on the world heritage list early next year after the government approves related documents by the end of this year. The government has prepared all the documents ...
MoIT rejects proposal to close mine
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has rejected a proposal to shut down a major iron mine over concerns that it poses risks to the environment. The ministry said in a press statement that the proposal by the Ministry of Investment and Planning (MPI) to ...
ASEAN-EU plans joint statement on climate change
Senior officials from ASEAN and the European Union are working on a joint statement on climate change to show their solidarity and commitment to the Paris Agreement.“The doc ument will be finalised soon, and the announcement will be made at the post-ministerial meeting,” said a ...
Asia’s infrastructure boom is coming to the cities most threatened by climate change
As a region, Asia pours an estimated $881 billion each year into infrastructure. Some recent notable works include the roughly 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) four-lane highway that connects New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai, which was completed in 2012; and the approved plan for a metro through ...
240 spots contaminated with pesticides remain in VN
Việt Nam still has 240 pesticide-contaminated locations in 15 localities, causing serious and extremely serious pollution, according to the 2016 National Environmental Report.Keep reading ...
Forget the South China Sea, this is Asia’s real water war
While tensions in the South China Sea have the potential for limited skirmishes far out to sea, the competition over the resources of the Mekong River is putting millions at risk of natural disasters, famine and regional instability. The Mekong River provides a vital lifeline ...
Benefits flow as nation, World Bank join hands on water management
The World Bank has approved more than 207.2 billion kip (US$25 million) of additional financing for the Mekong Integrated Water Resource Management Project (MIWRM) in Laos. This additional support will continue to improve the country’s national water resource management systems. The Ministry of Finance and the ...
