Al Jazeera
Laos to go ahead with Luang Prabang dam project despite warnings
The government of Laos has officially informed the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) of its plan to build a new dam in Luang Prabang, despite warnings about the project’s environmental effects. “We confirm that the MRC Secretariat has received the notification from the Lao government on the Luang ...
Andrew Nachemson
Cambodia's lifeline threatened as Mekong recedes to historic low
As world leaders meet in New York from Monday to discuss the global challenge of climate change, thousands of kilometres away people in Cambodia are grappling with dramatic changes to the country’s ecosystem, including the lowest water levels in the crucially-important Mekong River ever recorded. The United Nations Development Programme, ...
Andrew Nachemson
New report: Proposed Myanmar dam could displace thousands
Myanmar government officials claim a hydroelectricity project along the Tanintharyi River could significantly benefit the Southeast Asian nation. But new research by a trio of human rights organisations offers a dark contrast to that bright picture. Almost 7,000 people could be displaced if a dam is built along ...
Leonie Kijewski
Cambodia's micro-loans accused of 'predatory' lending
Two prominent civil society groups in Cambodia have released a report detailing predatory practices by local microfinance institutions (MFIs), including coerced land sales. The joint report, released on Wednesday by human rights group, Licadho, and land rights group, Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), spans 10 communities in four provinces ...
Andrew Nachemson
US joins calls for Myanmar to end internet shutdown
Myanmar is facing increasing pressure to immediately end a mobile internet blackout in parts of two of its states, with the United States becoming the latest to call for the lifting of the data restrictions. Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Communications on June 21 ordered mobile phone operators to shut down ...
More than 50 feared dead after landslide at Myanmar jade mine
More than 50 people were feared dead after a landslide in northern Myanmar engulfed jade miners while they were sleeping, the latest deadly accident in a notoriously dangerous industry. The accident took place near Maw Wun Kalay village in Hpakant township at about 11:30pm local time (17:00 GMT) on Monday when a ...
'We're broken': Rohingya on hunger strike in Saudi detention
Scores of Rohingya detainees inside a Saudi detention centre have gone on a hunger strike for the third time in recent months, activists told Al Jazeera. Almost 650 men, most of whom have been kept at the Shumaisi detention centre in Jeddah since 2012 for not having valid ...
Saba Aziz
Nowhere to go: Myanmar farmers under siege from land law
Han Win Naung is besieged on his own land. Last September, local administrators in Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi region put up a sign at the edge of his 5.7-hectare farm that read “Under Management Ownership – Do Not Trespass”. They felled the trees and started building a ...
Jacob Goldberg
The last 92 Irrawaddy dolphins in Mekong River may not survive
Experts are concerned that the Mekong dolphin is unlikely to survive Cambodia’s modernisation as a new dam is planned. It says, “building dams destroy habitats” and lists threats to dolphins, including pollutions and gillnets. It looks like an insect-eaten papyrus. The Irrawaddy dolphin is a critically endangered ...
Nathan A. Thompson
Myanmar moves to legalise casinos
Myanmar is considering a plan to legalise casinos. Some already operate under special provisions but changes to the law are being proposed to encourage more tourism and tax collection. A Chinese company is now working with a militia to help it develop a large border ...
