News
Cambodian mega dam’s resurrection on the Mekong ‘the beginning of the end’
A long-dormant plan to build a mega dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River in Cambodia’s northeastern Stung Treng province appears to have been revived this year, leaving locals immediately downstream of the potential sites worried and experts confounded. First studied in 2007, the 1,400-megawatt ...
Gerald Flynn, Nehru Pry
Vietnam loses sacred cranes after habitat change
Twenty years ago, Nguyen Van Liet took scientists to the wetlands near his hometown of Tram Chim on Vietnam’s Mekong Delta to find sarus cranes, a vulnerable bird species according to the IUCN Red List, native to Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australia. “We had to ...
Tran Nguyen
Inequality, Discord and Insecurity in Myanmar’s ‘Sacrifice Zone’
Recent reports by Global Witness and AP news highlight severe environmental destruction by unregulated and illegal rare earths extraction (REE) in northeastern Myanmar bordering China. “There is a name for what Myanmar has become: A “sacrifice zone,” or a place that destroys itself for the good of the world. ...
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY MYANMAR
Ministry proposes importing electricity from Laos
Electricity imports from Laos should be taken into account due to a possible power shortage in northern Vietnam from 2022 to 2025, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has written to the Prime Minister proposing a plan to ...
The Saigon Times
Mekong nations look for bridge over ‘ASEAN development gap’
Giving equal momentum to development remains the major topic that the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) nations – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) – will discuss at the 54th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ (AEM) Meeting, slated to kick off on September 14 in Siem Reap town. Pen ...
Eng Reachny
Mekong group upgrades flood forecasting tool
The Mekong River Commission has updated its monitoring and flood forecasting front page to provide better information on the Mekong conditions. The commission’s Flood and Drought Forecast and Monitoring page has recently been revitalized since the last improvement in 2018 with a new interface, the MRC, ...
Minh Nga
In the Mekong Basin, an ‘unnecessary’ dam poses an outsized threat
“I remember seeing a buffalo, its head tied to a floating barrel, drifting down the river,” says Pheng Sisuwath, gesturing to the Sekong River from his stilt house in Cambodia’s northeastern province of Stung Treng. That was four years ago, when one of the auxiliary dams ...
Gerald Flynn, Nehru Pry
Thailand’s Anti-Torture Bill Could Finally End Refugee Push-Backs
Thailand took a momentous step on 24 August —not only because of a shock decision by the Constitutional Court to suspend Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha from his duties, but also because parliament finally passed a historic anti-torture bill. Once fully enacted, the Bill, formally known as ...
PATRICK PHONGSATHORN
Waste startups and entrepreneurship tackle Cambodia’s growing trash problem
n a remote road in Battambang, Cambodia, 38-year-old Lam Samphors was driving to a community training when he came across a strikingly large pile of trash in the middle of the road. As he hit the brakes and gazed upon the mountain of garbage, Samphors ...
CHEA SAMEANG
Minebea Cambodia announces $45M, 50MW solar farm
Japanese-owned electronics manufacturer Minebea (Cambodia) Co Ltd has unveiled plans for a $45 million 50MW solar farm to power its production and feed into the national grid, in support of eco-friendly, renewable energy source development. Minebea Cambodia operates a single factory in the Kingdom, in the ...
Hom Phanet
