News
Act now to save Mekong
Last week, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) released two reports which once again highlighted the existential threats to the Mekong River. Social impact monitoring and vulnerability assessment 2018: Report on 2018 baseline survey of the Lower Mekong mainstream and floodplain areas Status and trends of fish abundance ...
EDITORIAL
Korea Forest Service Discusses Forest Cooperation with 4 Mekong Region Countries
The Korea Forest Service held the 9th meeting of the Korea-Mekong Forest Cooperation Committee on Oct. 14 and discussed ways to strengthen forest cooperation to jointly respond to climate change with four countries in the Mekong region — Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. The online meeting ...
Jung Suk-yee
Asia: Malaria in the Greater Mekong subregion
According to 2nd Quarter 2021 data from the World Health Organization (WHO) Mekong Malaria Elimination Program published October 1, the Greater Mekong subregion (GMS) reported 12,454 malaria cases from April to June 2021. The data shows Plasmodium falciparum and mixed cases were down 69 percent from the same ...
NEWS DESK
Greenwashing Big Hydropower
Despite being linked to several disasters, the Asian Development Bank has reaffirmed its commitment to large hydro developments. Rishika Pardikar speaks to people holding it to account. Large hydropower projects, which use moving water to create electricity, can have destructive consequences for the environment – despite their seemingly ...
Rishika Pardikar
China Joins Lower Mekong River Countries to Study Impacts of Climate Change, Dams
China and the countries of the lower Mekong River are teaming up for their largest joint study yet of the impacts climate change and hydropower dams are having on one of Asia’s great waterways, and how to cope with the growing threats from floods and ...
Zsombor Peter
Improving Food Security Through Capacity Building
Millions of people suffer from food insecurity around the globe. With the help of Earth-observing satellites, the NASA-USAID SERVIR project is hoping to reduce that number. Food security – the consistent availability and affordability of food – is a basic human need, yet it remains elusive ...
Esprit Smith, NASA’s Earth Science News Team
Wet-season dam operations hit Mekong ecology and communities
In early July 2021, Chinese dams began restricting the flow of the Upper Mekong. Researchers and activists say the consequences downstream are unknown and potentially severe. As China celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party on 1 July, the Jinghong dam in Yunnan Province began restricting ...
Tyler Roney, The Third Pole
Chinese dams cloud Mekong River relations
The new Chinese Ambassador to Thailand, Han Zhiqiang compares relations between the two countries and their collective effort to combat Covid-19 pandemic as being “one family”. The ambassador insists he is not exaggerating and said his sentiments resonate with what is happening on the ground. He ...
MONTREE CHANTAWONG
Droughts shrink hydropower, pose risk to global push to clean energy
Severe droughts are drying up rivers and reservoirs vital for the production of zero-emissions hydropower in several countries around the globe, in some cases leading governments to rely more heavily on fossil fuels. The emerging problems with hydropower production in places like the United States, China ...
Sharon Bernstein and Jake Spring, David Stanway
Japan, Mekong states back Cambodia's economic recovery initiative
Japan and other Mekong countries have expressed support for Cambodia’s initiative to establish a joint working group on the Mekong-Japan Economic Recovery Scenarios, according to a press statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation following their latest meeting on August 6. The ...
Voun Dara
