Environment and natural resources
Pollution and waste
Thailand must take action for cleaner air in Asean
When complaints are made about the haze crisis and air pollution in Southeast Asia, most usually think about fires in Indonesia’s provinces, which have been a recurrent problem for over two decades. However, the situation this year has been different as Thailand has been at the ...
Simon Tay & Liyana Othman
Vietnamese man makes & sells straws out of wild grass found in Mekong delta
In recent times, plastic straws have been shunned due to its impact on marine animals. Now, numerous purportedly more eco-friendly alternatives to plastic straws have sprouted, such as metal straws and rice straws. One rather innovative solution that has surfaced are straws made out of grass. In a ...
Summer field trip programme examines Mekong Delta
Foreign and Vietnamese lecturers and postgraduates will conduct research about landslides, river pollution, climate-change adaptation, transnational marriages and Khmer migration as part of the Summer School & Field Trip 2019 from March 18 to 31 in the Mekong Delta. Seven field sites in HCM City, ...
ASEAN lacks crucial data on air pollution
A large portion of the population in Southeast Asia do not have proper information on the air they breathe every day. While an analysis of air pollution readings from Greenpeace and AirVisual found that 95 percent of Southeast Asian cities surveyed exceeded the World Health Organization’s ...
Dozens of companies launch US$1 billion bid to end plastic pollution in Asia but environmentalists dismiss it as ‘greenwashing’ stunt
The “Alliance to End Plastic Waste” (AEPW) consortium of more than 30 companies launched last month, dedicating a combined total of US$1 billion over the next five years – aiming for US$1.5 billion if more conglomerates join – to develop better plastic recycling practices and ...
Seminar seeks to address land subsidence in Mekong Delta
A scientific seminar on land subsidence in the Mekong Delta – situation and solutions took place in Hanoi on December 28. In his opening speech, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan said climate change, riverside landslide and land subsidence are posing challenges ...
Thailand to ban foreign plastic waste from 2021
Thailand plans to stop all imports of foreign plastic scrap by 2021 as it joins other south-east Asian countries looking to stem an influx of waste products that used to be recycled in China. Fleshing out details of the ban, which was initially announced in ...
Trade of coastal sand is damaging wildlife of poorer nations, study finds
The secretive trade of coastal sand to wealthy countries such as China is seriously damaging the wildlife of poorer nations whose resources are being plundered, according to a new study. Sand and gravel are the most extracted groups of materials worldwide after water, with sand used in ...
Parasites in water supply potential risk for disease transmission in Southeast Asia
The presence of parasites in both raw and treated water supply in Southeast Asian countries can be a potential risk for disease transmission. The Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA) vice president Prof Datuk Dr Khairul Anuar Abdullah said therefore, that ...
Southeast Asian nations grapple with worsening plastic trash crisis
China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are dumping more plastic into oceans than the rest of the world combined. Are Southeast Asian nations doing enough to tackle the ever-growing plastic pollution problem? []The website Mekong Eye says that Southeast Asia’s Mekong region is “the world’s single ...
