News

In a remote part of northern Laos, the bamboo forest gives way to cranes. A city is being carved out of jungle: tower blocks cloaked in scaffolding loom over restaurants, karaoke bars and massage parlours. The beating heart of Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (so ...

More than 32 million methamphetamine pills have been seized thanks to a two-month-long coordinated anti-drug campaign by countries in the Mekong Delta, says the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB). The joint campaign was implemented in Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia since December, and ...

NASA and the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Landsat 8 satellite captured images of the Mekong river before and after it turned from its signature brown to an unusual aquamarine color. According to authorities, it is possible for the green color to persist until the ...

The former chief of Pak Chim, a tiny village on a tributary of the Mekong River, remembers clearly the moment he knew his hamlet would be no more. It was a decade ago. A few hundred residents of Pak Chim and nearby villages along the snaking ...

For more than half a century, January meant prime fishing season for Pang Bin. He took his wooden boat out into Cambodia’s largest lake, his catches and their sales sustaining his family for much of the year. This month, the 75-year-old decided to call it quits, ...

Deforestation and damming have altered the shape of river deltas across the globe, contributing to a net 54 square kilometres of land gained per year over the past three decades, according to a study published in the journal Nature. These landforms are home to hundreds of millions of people, ...

Countries in the Mekong region have been leaders in developing products and services based on the sustainable use of biodiversity for years.   Many have also ratified the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing, which sets a minimum standard for regulations on accessing genetic resources and sharing ...

Early in January, locals in the northern Thai village of Chiang Khong woke to find the Mekong River had dropped a metre overnight. The water level fell so rapidly that damp mud was still visible days later when the ABC visited the area and some boats ...

Water levels on the Mekong River, which flows through China and five other countries before emptying into the South China Sea, have dropped once again after Beijing revealed it was testing equipment at one of its 11 dams in the upper reaches of the vital ...

Ninety-seven kilometres of rocks in Thai waters stand between Beijing and dominance over the Mekong, a mighty river that feeds millions as it threads south from the Tibetan plateau through five countries before emptying into the South China Sea. China has long wanted to dredge the ...