Environment and natural resources
Analysis: Years in the making, Vietnam’s Mekong Delta policy takes the long view
Vietnam’s Mekong Delta is approximately the same size as the Netherlands — about 41,000 square kilometers (16,000 square miles) — and is home to 17 million people, very nearly the same population as the Netherlands. Perhaps that made dialogue easier. Unlike many foreign experts, the Dutch ...
David Brown
Lao Dams Lower Water Levels on a Scenic River, Harming Tour Boat Operators and Other Local Businesses
Water levels lowered by seven dams along a stretch of the Nam Ou River in Laos are blocking boat travel in a scenic area popular with tourists, impacting tour and passenger boat operators and other local businesses, Lao sources say. Travel by water between Nong Khiaw ...
Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney
Mekong river at lowest level this year
The water level in the Mekong river has dropped quickly and was only about 1.90 metres deep in this northeastern border province on Monday, the lowest this year. The lack of water is being blamed on the many dams upstream in China, and this year’s poor ...
PATTANAPONG SRIPIACHAI
Cambodia’s Tonle Sap shows what’s at stake in the Mekong’s dam-fueled decline
Every year around December, fishers, farmers and families across Cambodia begin the season for making the country’s traditional prahok fish paste, a vital staple in the country’s diet. But this tradition, along with the food supply and livelihoods of millions of people, is under threat from a growing ecological ...
Editorial
A floating community in Siem Reap adopting plastic free approach to combat pollution
A floating community in Tonle Sap Lake in Keo Por commune, Puok district of Siem Reap province is aware of environmental impact caused by plastic wastes – thanks to their participation in a campaign to clear the lake from plastic. In an interview with journalists, Mr. ...
Lim Nary – AKP
Viet Nam and the WEF Launch Partnership to Tackle Plastic Pollution
Viet Nam’s leading environmental policy-makers, experts, business leaders, local and international organizations today endorsed an action platform, which aims to help Viet Nam dramatically reduce the flow of plastic waste into land and ocean, develop a roadmap to eliminate single-use plastic, non-biodegradable plastic bags, especially ...
Newsroom
Analysis: How Vietnam came to embrace a new vision of the Mekong Delta’s future
On any list of places menaced by climate change, Vietnam’s broad and fertile Mekong Delta ranks near the top. And yet, as I wrote for Mongabay four years ago, rising seas and changing weather patterns are not the only threats to the delta’s fabled fecundity. A spasm of ...
David Brown
Delta blues? Tensions rise along the Mekong as science meets strategy
China has been ramping up its investments with the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, which – according to American officials – is an attempt to compete with the Mekong River Commission (MRC). A competition over who dominates scientific and technical knowledge of the river indicates an escalation in the complexity of ...
Giulio Boccaletti
Hydropower vs Heritage: Will Laos Lose Luang Prabang?
The Lao government’s high-risk plan to install a massive dam on the Mekong River, perilously close to the renowned UNESCO World Heritage site of Luang Prabang, shows a disregard for its legal obligations to protect the renowned site, according to conservation experts. Minja Yang, the former ...
Tom Fawthrop
Trash talk: Why waste management is not a throwaway business
As waste continues to increase on Phnom Penh streets and decrease government coffers, everyone from policymakers to the public wants a solution. Khmer Times’ Tom Starkey spoke to community leader in sustainability and owner and founder of Phnom Penh restaurant Farm To Table Brittany Sims about why ...
Tom Starkey
