Human demands and implications

The inter-governmental consultation on the Pak Beng project, the third hydroelectric dam planned to be built on the Mekong River in Laos, tells us a lot about the future of dam building on this mighty international waterway.Read more ...

The Mekong Delta, home to some 18 million inhabitants, is plagued by severe riverbank erosion, which has been blamed on climate change and human factors. Unrelenting rain last month washed away riverbanks in Hoà Định Hamlet in Đồng Tháp Province’s Lai Vung District, causing several ...

Authorities in Thai Nguyen Province in northern Vietnam have declared a state of emergency as Nui Coc, a massive man-made freshwater lake, threatens to give way due to permeation at any moment. Tens of thousands of residents living in nearby lowlands are susceptible to the ...

Thuận Hòa Hydropower Joint Stock Company and Hà Giang Province’s People’s Committee has jointly inaugurated a power plant on the Miện River.Keep reading ...

Dams are supposed to collect water from rivers and redistribute it to alleviate water shortages, right? Not so fast. It turns out that in most cases they actually create water scarcity, especially for people living downstream.Almost a quarter of the global population experiences significant decreases ...

With some 175 million cubic metres of water stored in an elevated position, Núi Cốc Lake’s major dam in the northern province of Thái Nguyên could devastate downstream areas if it broke, experts have said.Thái Nguyên City, Sông Công City, Phổ Yên Township, Phú Bình ...

Citizens from eight Thai provinces along the Mekong River are suing state agencies because they claim there was inadequate public participation in planning for the Pak Beng hydropower dam, which is being built by Laos.The Thai Network of Eight Mekong Provinces filed a lawsuit in ...

A damning review of plans for the controversial Pak Beng hydropower dam on the Mekong River in Laos was released this week by US-based advocacy group International Rivers, adding weight to calls for the project to be halted until new impact assessment studies are completed.The ...

For wildlife enthusiasts in the region, these are exciting times. A horned lizard and rainbow-headed snake were among 163 delightful new species documented last year by scientists alongside 10 endangered Irrawaddy dolphin calves. Fewer than 90 Irrawaddy dolphins exist on the planet.But all is not ...

One morning at the end of April, Nguyễn Văn Phú, a resident in Nguyên Khê Commune, Hà Nội’s Đông Anh District, woke up shocked to find that the fish in Nguyên Khê Lagoon had died en mass.He suspected polluted water in the lagoon was the ...