News

One-fifth of Mekong river fish species face extinction, report says

BANGKOK, March 4 (Reuters) – Unsustainable development threatens the health and diverse fish populations of the Mekong river, with one-fifth of fish species in Southeast Asia’s main artery facing extinction, a report by conservation groups said on Monday.   The Mekong, stretching nearly 5,000 km (3,000 miles) ...

REUTERS

Mekong politicians should separate economy from politics

Concerns have been raised by migrant workers that the Thai government will expel Cambodian and Laotian migrant workers. Although there is no explicit policy as such, the concerns are not groundless, because Thailand did in face expel some 200,000 Cambodian workers in June 2014 after the May ...

SIM VIREAK

China key contributor to green, sustainable development in Lancang-Mekong countries: Cambodian official, expert

China has been a key supporter of water governance and green and sustainable development in the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) countries, a Cambodian official and an expert said on Monday. The LMC consists of six countries, namely China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. So Sophort, secretary general ...

Source: XinhuaEditor: huaxia

Bangkok’s ‘Hazibition’ points finger at corporations for toxic haze in lower Mekong

Thailand’s clean air campaigners are staging an exhibition in Bangkok to show how industrial-scale maize cultivation to produce animal feed is partly responsible for the toxic annual smog in the lower Mekong region.  “Hazibition,” an exhibition on haze pollution by environment group Greenpeace, started Tuesday at ...

Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA

Don’t jump to conclusions over data on distressed Mekong River, says China official

A Chinese official in a Mekong River intergovernmental body has warned against jumping to conclusions about data on the distressed waterway, saying that politics may get in the way of closer cooperation between upstream and downstream countries along the waterway. “Some parties start with preconceptions, and ...

Tan Hui Yee/The Straits Times

Robust river governance key to restoring Mekong River vitality in face of dams

Niwat Roykaew, an environmental activist based in Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand, described the Mekong as a naga, a mythical water serpent and symbol of fertility that brings abundance to the entire region. The river, which flows across the borders of six countries, supports a vast ...

Carolyn Cowan

As hydropower dams quell the Mekong’s life force, what are the costs?

The Mekong River carves a vast aquatic lifeline through Asia. Rising in glacial streams high in the Tibetan plateau, the river morphs as it tumbles south through rocky ravines, steep-sided valleys and expansive flooded forests to the South China Sea. Its influence is immense: over ...

Carolyn Cowan

Heavy Rains Improve Mekong Life, But Concerns Remain

Heavy rains and a bumper fish crop have improved life along the Mekong River after a nearly four-year drought, poor harvests and the pandemic took a heavy toll on some 65 million people who rely on the waterway for their daily livelihoods. According to the Laos-based ...

Luke Hunt

Mekong Countries Pin Development Hopes on Airport Progress

Following three years of pandemic restrictions, Thailand’s eastern seaboard gateway—U-Tapao airport—has returned to the spotlight after deputy government spokesperson Tipanan Sirichana recently said expansion plans would commence in early 2023. Earmarked as an “Aviation City” in 2017, the $8.8 billion mega airport project will occur ...

Jennifer Meszaros

Will the Mekong River Really Become the Next South China Sea?

In recent years, the fate of Southeast Asia’s great river – the Mekong – has attracted growing international scrutiny. The Mekong faces many challenges, from the impacts of climate change and saline encroachment in its delta, to dam developments on the headwaters of the river ...

Sebastian Strangio

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