Rivers and lakes

Hydropower dams, which use flowing water to turn a series of turbines to generate electricity, provide a source of energy that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels. But they also disrupt the flow of rivers, and impact the fish and people that live there. Scientists have been ...

A pipeline stretching from central to north-east Thailand promises to “promote Thailand as an energy hub in the region” and “increase energy security”, according to the Ministry of Energy. Construction began in mid-2019, despite local communities objecting that the largely Chinese-financed project could worsen flooding ...

For months now, a single, rare Irrawaddy river dolphin, apparently entangled in a fishing net and disoriented, has been spotted in Southeast Asia’s struggling Mekong River, far from its normal habitat in northern Cambodia. Conservationists are scrambling to come up with a plan to help the ...

NASA and the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Landsat 8 satellite captured images of the Mekong river before and after it turned from its signature brown to an unusual aquamarine color. According to authorities, it is possible for the green color to persist until the ...

The Mekong River has almost dried up in That Phanom district, forcing boats that transport goods and passengers across the Thai-Lao border to find other routes. The provicinial harbour office reported that water in the Mekong River as it flows through the province dropped to between ...

Deforestation and damming have altered the shape of river deltas across the globe, contributing to a net 54 square kilometres of land gained per year over the past three decades, according to a study published in the journal Nature. These landforms are home to hundreds of millions of people, ...

Ninety-seven kilometers of rocks in Thai waters stand between Beijing and dominance over the Mekong, a mighty river that feeds millions as it threads south from the Tibetan Plateau through five countries before emptying into the South China Sea. China has long wanted to dredge the ...

It’s a resource used in global construction and mined from rivers and coasts across the world. Now new research, as part of a project led by University of Southampton, has shown sand mining is causing river beds to lower, leading to riverbank instability and increasing ...

Ninety-seven kilometres of rocks in Thai waters stand between Beijing and dominance over the Mekong, a mighty river that feeds millions as it threads south from the Tibetan plateau through five countries before emptying into the South China Sea. China has long wanted to dredge the ...

When the normally murky brown Mekong River turned a brilliant blue late last year, villagers in northeastern Thailand were surprised. Then, this week, unusually large patches of green algae appeared, clogging up nets and making it almost impossible to fish. Both the Mekong’s strange colour and the ...