Environment and natural resources
Vietnam seeks Japan’s assistance in climate change response

President Tran Dai Quang asked for Japan’s continued assistance in responding to climate change, especially drought and saline intrusion in the central, Central Highlands and southern regions, while receiving Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Fukada Hiroshi in Hanoi on 19 April. The State leader thanked Japan for ...
Low reservoir levels in Siem Reap affecting thousands

More than 1,000 families in Siem Reap province, Cambodia are facing clean water shortages as the water level at Baray Teuk Thla reservoir has fallen for the first time in several years due to the especially harsh drought conditions confronting the Kingdom in recent months. Keep ...
Mekong water crisis compounded by rice-killing drought

The 3.6 hectares in southern Vietnam that double as rice paddy and shrimp pond for farmer Nguyen Thi Tam have become a wasteland. After the worst drought in 90 years, almost nothing grows. It’s not that easy to switch, said Nguyen Trung Kien, vice chairman of ...
Gov’t thanks Chinese for keeping dam open

“The discharge of water into the Mekong River proves again the good cooperation on water resource management between the Mekong countries and China,” the Cambodia’s Foreign Affairs and Water Resources ministries said in a joint statement. Keep reading ...
Yok Don national park still threatened by hydropower project

The Drang Phok Hydropower Plant project, which was started way back in 2007 and criticised for its impact on the ecosystem, has still not been scrapped despite continued opposition. In 2007, the chairman of Dak Lak Province at that time, Lu Ngoc Cu, granted his approval ...
Project to reduce chemical risks to environment launched

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in collaboration with the UN Development Programme on 14 April launched the “Vietnam Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) and Sound Harmful Chemicals Management Project”. The project is expected to provide technical support for the development of new regulations and technical ...
Climate change inflicts damage on rice in Mekong Delta provinces

In Ca Mau, about 10,000 prawn-rice hectares suffered heavy damage, 3,000 hectares of which were totally lost and the rest lost 70 percent and above of crops. U Minh, Tran Van Thoi and Thoi Binh districts suffered the heaviest losses. In Tien Giang, the Irrigation and Flood ...
China to release more water to alleviate SE Asia drought

China will release more water from a dam in its southwestern province of Yunnan to help alleviate a drought in parts of Southeast Asia, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, following an initial release begun last month. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed concern on 11 ...
New protected forests test overstretched ministry
The nearly 1 million hectares of newly protected forests the Environment Ministry wants to create by the end of the year will add nearly a third more land to the portfolio of an agency already struggling to manage the 3.2 million hectares it has. And ...
DSI vows to help save Naga Noi forest

Pol Lt-Colonel Prawut Wongseenin, who heads the DSI Bureau of Consumer Protection and Environment Crime, disclosed on 6 April that the department in Thailand would ask Justice Minister General Paiboon Koomchaya for help in seeking an order from the junta to block any bulldozing operations pending ...