News

Thailand’s Transport Ministry is planning a feasibility and design study on a new bridge across the Mekong River as part of the third phase of the Thai-Chinese high-speed rail project. Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob said the seventh bridge linking Nong Khai with Vientiane, also known as the second Thailand-Laos friendship ...

For Pianporn Deetes, the Mekong is more than a river. “This is not just liquid, but this is the entire life-supporting system,” Deetes, a local activist, said recently on a wooden long-tail boat heading upstream in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. The Mekong, one of the world’s longest waterways, runs about ...

Last year, more data was shared about the Mekong than ever before. Yet despite the increased openness enabled by the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) mechanism, the Mekong River Commission (MRC), and various NGOs, the wet season was still marred by low rainfall levels and controversy over retention ...

At first, Haslina Awae was willing to stop using a phone to avoid providing a scan of her face to the Thai government. Awae and other residents of Thailand’s Deep South, which comprise the three southernmost Malay-Muslim majority provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, were required ...

Corruption is seen as widespread across much of Southeast Asia, with Singapore and Cambodia’s public sectors respectively perceived as among the least and most corrupt nations worldwide, an international watchdog group reported. The 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, released 25 January by Berlin-based Transparency International, evaluates 180 countries ...

The Mekong in Southeast Asia is one of the world’s mightiest rivers and scientists are still learning about its stunning biodiversity. In fact, hardly a week seems to go by without new discoveries along the river. In a series of finds, according to a report by the World ...

Authorities are rushing to prevent an oil spill in eastern Thailand from damaging fragile corals, after officials said on Sunday (Jan 30) the leak that began last week was drifting towards more coastal areas. Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Varawut Silpa-archa said it was ...

Twenty years ago, the streams that run through the remote village of Totim in Preah Vihear’s Rovieng district, sparkled with gold. Those flecks drew poor farmers to the Romdeng community, looking to sift for gold and improve their livelihood. Before long, it also brought a ...

Bac Lieu Province in southern Vietnam is striving to become the national center of clean energy, with multiple wind power projects being implemented and put into operation. Bac Lieu Province currently has the most wind power projects in commercial operation in the Mekong Delta. Many vast land ...

For generations, Vietnamese communities have used the ample water resources and fertile soil of the Mekong Delta to feed the nation. Fuelled by the Mekong’s constant supply of rich sediment, the fisheries and paddy fields of Vietnam’s southernmost region have long been the bedrock of Vietnam’s ...