News

The Mekong Delta has experienced the most severe drought and saline intrusion ever in the dry season 2019-2020 but the negative impacts on agricultural production and daily life were minimised significantly thanks to effective measures, a top official has said. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong made the ...

Around 41,900 hectares of the winter-spring rice crop in provinces in the Mekong Delta were affected this year; of which, 26,000 hectares of rice ended in dead loss. On June 20, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) cooperated with the People’s Committee of Long ...

The Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) annual report, published 16 June, includes a noteworthy statement calling for increased transparency from China over upstream dam operations on the river. The Mekong is Southeast Asia’s longest river and acts as a lifeline to 60 million people. Downtream Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and ...

The strategically vital Mekong subregion has been gaining salience in Beijing’s strategic calculations as China faces growing pushback from the US and other countries. The global pandemic appears to be consolidating a few trends in China’s ties with the Mekong nations. In this emerging scenario, it is likely ...

The government of Laos has declared victory over Covid-19 following the discharge of all 19 confirmed cases from hospital, with no new cases for 59 days. Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith announced at a press conference yesterday that Laos had “gained an important victory in the first ...

Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has announced the Lao PDR is free of Covid-19 following the discharge of all 19 covid-19 patients from hospital and 59 consecutive days of no new infections.  “As of today, June 10, 2020, the number of people infected with COVID-19 in our ...

The Fisheries Administration has voiced concern over declining fish population caused by the decrease in water levels at lakes and rivers in the Kingdom. In an interview with a local media outlet, its director Hong Hy said yesterday the water levels in many important rivers in ...

A thousand elephants threatened by starvation have journeyed through the hills of northern Thailand, making a slow migration home from tourist sites forced shut by the pandemic. Home for some of the animals is the northern village of Huay Pakoot, where generations of ethnic Karen mahouts ...

A new study by researchers in Singapore from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) uses satellite data to show just how rapidly Southeast Asia’s vital peat forests are being cleared, drained and dried out. The paper, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, uses remote sensing to document how peatlands ...

Vietnam needs to effectively cooperate with other countries the Mekong River flows through and work to internationalise the region’s water issues, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha said on June 15. He made the call at the ninth session of the 14th National Assembly. Vietnam is ...