VOA

Southeast Asia Drug Use Persists Despite Death Penalty

Southeast Asian authorities are not shy about doling out the death penalty to punish drug traffickers, and yet narcotics abuse has not abated. If anything, it is on the rise, which begs the question of whether the region’s war on drugs is working. []“This unique characteristic ...

Myanmar's Anti-Corruption Fight Gathers Steam

Myanmar’s anti-corruption commission has in recent weeks sued a senior bureaucrat and begun investigating a disgraced minister, indicating a crackdown on corruption promised by the government is finally happening. Often criticized as weak and unambitious, the commission’s stepped-up efforts suggest the Southeast Asian country is ...

Solar Surge Threatens Hydro Future on Mekong

Thousands of megawatts of wind and solar energy contracts in the Mekong region of Southeast Asia have been signed, seriously challenging the financial viability of major hydropower projects on the river, an energy expert told a water conference last week. Keep reading ...

David Boyle

Mekong Leaders Mostly Mum on Risks Tied to Intense Damming

Presented with “frightening” possibilities due to intense damming, the leaders of the Mekong River Commission member countries gave little sign Thursday they had heeded calls to fundamentally rethink water policy for the shared waterway, with the exception of Vietnam. Keep reading ...

David Boyle/Sun Narin

Mekong Nation Leaders to Hold Summit Amid Concerns About Dams

Amid worry about the impact hydropower dams are having on the economically and environmentally critical Mekong River, leaders of four Southeast Asian nations dependent on its waters are scheduled to convene a summit early next month to reaffirm their “political commitment” to a 1995 cooperative ...

Sun Narin

China-led Group Wants More Development on Mekong River

China and five Southeast Asian countries have set goals for developing the Mekong River area, but experts wonder if the group can succeed. Leaders of the five countries met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in early January in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. This was ...

Mario Ritter

China's Interest in Riverine Development Evident at Mekong River Summit

In March 2016, while chairing the first summit on the Beijing-initiated Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC), Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, in a speech, cited an anonymous Southeast Asian proverb: “When gentle breezes stick together, they can have the power of a typhoon.” ...

Aun Chhengpor

Pollution, Overfishing Threaten Important Cambodian Lake

A rich fishery in Southeast Asia is at risk because of overfishing, pollution and hydroelectric dams. The Tonle Sap is a freshwater lake in the middle of Cambodia. The lake shrinks and expands by thousands of kilometers, depending on the season.[]“There are plans to build ...

Kevin Enochs

Most Ocean Plastic Pollution Carried by 10 Rivers

The equivalent of one garbage truck full of plastic waste is dumped into the world’s oceans every minute, equal to 8 million tons a year. New research suggests that 90 percent of that waste gets into the oceans through 10 major river systems.[] Two of the ...

Henry Ridgwell

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