Water resources
Surface water
Asean needs to act on Mekong River
Two events happened last month that went largely unnoticed by most of the mainstream media in Southeast Asia. One was the third Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Leaders’ Meeting between China and the five Mekong members of Asean — Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The other ...
CHEN CHEN LEE
Salween diversion project enters troubled waters
Over the past few months, the Irrigation Department and the House Committee Review of Integrated River Basin Management have been heavily promoting an inter-basin water diversion scheme. Planned projects will divert water across Thailand, incorporating international river basins, including the Mekong and Salween, to address ...
PIANPORN DEETES
In the Shadow of Riches, Fishers Face Eviction, Desperately Low Waters
Yan Khouvry was out fishing till 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning. He had set out late morning on Monday and plied the waters near Koh Dach all day and night. He returned with just two fish. Later on Tuesday morning, around 10 a.m., he was preparing ...
Mech Dara and Michael Dickison
Tonle Sap Bottleneck comparison - September 2019 vs 2020
Prior to 2020, the 2019 wet season was one of the driest on record. The annual reversal of the Tonle Sap in Cambodia was severely delayed in 2019 but low rainfall plus upstream dam regulation (mostly from China’s 11 mainstream Mekong dams) have totally erased ...
Brian Eyler
Dams in the upper Mekong river transform nutrient release downstream
Hydropower is the world’s largest source of energy generation. It is commonly assumed that hydropower reservoirs retain nutrients, and this nutrient reduction significantly reduces primary productivity, fishery catches and food security downstream. An international research team, including Prof. Jef Huisman from the University of Amsterdam, ...
Jef Huisman
Last Group of Families Displaced by Laos’ Nam Theun 1 Dam Accept Compensation
More than a hundred families in central Laos’ Bolikhamxay province who were displaced by the Nam Theun 1 dam have decided to accept compensation, putting an end to a standoff that lasted 17 months, sources in Laos told RFA. Disputes over compensation by displaced villagers have ...
RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Water agency seeks input on Moon River Basin plan
Nakhon Ratchasima: The Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR) yesterday kick started public consultations to draw up a water-management plan for the Moon River Basin. The plan is urgently needed to tackle severe drought and floods in 10 northeastern provinces, it says. The first consultation, which ...
PRASIT TANGPRASERT
270kg marijuana seized from Mekong riverbank
Border control police on Saturday night seized 270 kilogrammes of premium-grade dried marijuana on the Mekong river bank in Tha Uthen district, company commander Pol Lt Col Apisit Rodnoy said at a press conference on Sunday. Eight black plastic bags were found by officers of the ...
PATTANAPONG SRIPIACHAI
US-backed institutions' hyping China's 'dams threat' in Mekong River riddled with loopholes: expert
Meddling by the US in Mekong River water resource issues is an attempt to contain China in the region by hyping China’s “dam threat,” while citing only weak evidence and sources given by the US-backed institutions that blame China for downstream disasters, Chinese observers found. Chinese ...
Hu Yuwei and Lin Xiaoyi
Mekong dams store up trouble for China downstream
China has been accused of limiting the water to one of the world’s biggest rivers to feed its hydroelectric dams. David Stilwell, the US assistant secretary of state for east Asia and the Pacific, said that Beijing was manipulating the water flows of the Mekong with ...
Didi Tang