The Mekong

Snaking down the length of the Mekong River the beautifully detailed map looks strikingly like those marking the distribution of unexploded ordnance in Laos. The red dots that pockmark the course of the river, from its origins in the highlands of China to its outlet ...

With persistent concerns expressed by India about China’s exploitation of the Yarlung Zangbo River, upstream from the Brahmaputra River in India, officials and scholars should study the possibility of borrowing on the experience of the Lancang-Mekong cooperation mechanism to resolve disputes along trans-boundary rivers. The ...

Laos has suggested that cooperation between the Mekong Basin countries and China focus on the development of infrastructure for improved connectivity and to bolster commercial production. The proposal was made by the Lao delegation led by Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Saleumxay Kommasith at the ...

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Joint Patrol and Law Enforcement initiative on the Mekong River. In December 2011, security authorities in China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand launched the initiative after around 8 gunmen stormed two Chinese vessels and killed thirteen sailors. In today’s ...

A rainbow-headed snake, a tiny frog and a lizard with dragon-like horns are among more than 150 new species confirmed by scientists last year in the ecologically diverse but threatened Mekong region, researchers said on Monday. Winding its way from the Tibetan plateau through the ...

As construction on the Don Sahong dam near the Cambodia-Laos border passes its halfway point, activists and locals are increasingly concerned over the disappearance of Irawaddy dolphins and incidences of illness they suspect are caused by the muddied water. “The waters downstream in Cambodia have ...

Many provinces in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta are taking measures to secure freshwater for farming and household use since drought and saltwater intrusion is expected to be severe in the 2016-17 dry season.  Nguyễn Thiện Pháp, head of the Tiền Giang Province Irrigation Sub-department, ...

Humility is a rare commodity in the era of the smartphone, selfies and carefully–coiffed digital personas. Gratitude, too, is unusual in the modern world where a sense of entitlement seems all pervasive. Despite most of us being aware enough to acknowledge that all human beings ...

Laos needs to rethink its aggressive hydropower plans as new markets and technologies create an opportunity to change course. A report published in September by the Stimson Center, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, challenges prevailing notions about the future of hydropower in the Mekong subregion, an ...

Thuong Kon Tum dam, which is built in the Dak Snghe River watershed, is one of the biggest hydropower projects in the basin of the Se San river. The effect of the dam is still questionable but it raises concerns about environmental impacts as the ...