News
Lancang-Mekong protection makes gains
Environmental officials and experts from China and five other countries discussed strategic goals to promote regional environmental cooperation along the Lancang-Mekong River in a meeting on Wednesday in Beijing. The river, an international body of water, crosses all six countries-China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and ...
Huang Mingrui
S'pore has strict criteria for sand imports, says Govt, as controversy over Cambodian imports brews
The Republic stopped importing sand from Cambodia after a ban took effect in November last year, said the Ministry of National Development as the issue of sand imports once again takes the spotlight. Responding to media queries, the MND also stressed that Singapore sets strict criteria ...
NA members want tougher oversight on chemical use
National Assembly members have proposed that the government impose tougher measures in managing the distribution and use of dangerous chemicals so they can be brought under control. NA members expressed their wish on October 31 when debating the NA’s Standing Committee oversight of social and environmental ...
Ministry demands closure of factory, chicken farm
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has recommended revoking the licences of a chicken farm and a brick factory in Xaythany district, Vientiane, after learning they were causing pollution and affecting nearby communities. Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sommad Pholsena told the National Assembly ...
300 million children live in areas with extreme air pollution, data reveals
Global study reveals huge number of children breathing toxic fumes more than six times over safe limits, while billions are affected by air pollution that exceeds guidelines. Three hundred million of the world’s children live in areas with extreme air pollution, where toxic fumes are more ...
Gov’t names 27 potential polluters
Up to 27 projects of seven State corporations are listed in a Ministry of Industry and Trade’s directive as being liable to cause environmental pollution. In the directive on strengthening environmental protection issued this week, Minister of Industry and Trade Trần Tuấn Anh requested all relevant ...
Will hydropower turn the tide on the Salween River?
Both history and future development plans point to risks for the Salween River and its eco-systems and communities. Over-development, lack of public consultation and the appetite for energy threaten Asia’s last free flowing, international river. It is among the most visited, most photographed and most ...
World Bank funds environmental protection projects
The Environment Protection Fund and the World Bank recently provided funding for the second phase of four environmental and social protection sub-projects in Laos at a cost of more than US$4 million. The first sub-project named Capacity Building for Pollution Control, Waste and Hazardous Chemicals Management ...
Philippines to suspend 12 more mines in environmental crackdown
A dozen more Philippine mines, mostly nickel projects, are in danger of being suspended in an ongoing environmental crackdown on the sector, an environment undersecretary said on September 21. The Southeast Asian nation, the world’s top supplier of nickel ore, has already halted the operations of ...