News
Green algae, blue water add to fears over health of Southeast Asia's Mekong
When the normally murky brown Mekong River turned a brilliant blue late last year, villagers in northeastern Thailand were surprised. Then, this week, unusually large patches of green algae appeared, clogging up nets and making it almost impossible to fish. Both the Mekong’s strange colour and the ...
Panu Wongcha-um and Kay Johnson
Overcoming barriers to fighting wildlife crime
ildlife trafficking, like drug and human trafficking, is often a trans-boundary crime. Animal parts and products, non-timber forest products, and living creatures heading to the pet trade find their way across borders every day, passing fluidly between jurisdictions and human societies. Given legal and language barriers, ...
Mia Signs
The Mekong: the good, bad and ugly sides to the ‘Danube of the East’
To Tibetans, it’s known as Dza Chu, or the River of Rocks, and to the Chinese it’s the Lancang Jiang, the Turbulent River. The Lao refer to it as the Mother of Waters, in Cambodia it’s the Great Water and by the time it reaches ...
Tim Pile
Dams lead to extinction
Before being officially declared extinct by scientists late last month, the Chinese paddlefish, a native to the Yangtze River system, had been listed along with the Mekong giant catfish as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The extinction of the paddlefish, one ...
The Mekong Delta: an unsettling portrait of coastal collapse
Some environmental disasters present themselves over years; others come with a bang — or a splash. The latter happened one day in August, when residents of Binh My, a commune in Vietnam’s lush Mekong Delta, heard a loud cracking sound. They went outside to watch ...
John Reed
New power plants blamed for turning Mekong River blue
The Mekong River has turned a bright and striking blue, but this eye-catching sight has raised concerns about the environment and the livelihoods of those living in the region. The Mekong runs for nearly 3,100 miles and flows through China, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia, filling a ...
Simon Roughneen
Currents of Time
A river can be timeless, but on no two days will its flowing course ever truly be the same. So it goes on the mighty Mekong. For thousands of years, this river has wound its way through much of Asia, shaping the land and lives of ...
Andrew Haffner
Germany offers $2.2 million to cross-border water cooperation
The German government today provided an additional 2 million euro ($2.2 million) to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to increase cross-border water dialogue, cooperation, and support efforts in monitoring trans boundary environmental impacts from Mekong mainstream dams. The funding agreement was made in a signing ceremony ...
Taing Vida
Mekong River Commission issues warning about blue-green water
With parts of the Mekong River turning an unusual blue-green, an inter-governmental commission has warned of possibly serious consequences if water levels stay low in the increasing dammed river. The Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Monday (Dec 9) the aquamarine hue currently seen in a ...
Tan Hui Yee
Mekong River’s new aquamarine color may be sign of trouble
The Mekong River has recently acquired an aquamarine color that may beguile tourists but also indicates a problem caused by upstream dams, experts in Thailand say. The river usually has a yellowish-brown shade due to the sediment it normally carries downstream. But lately it has been ...
Busaba Sivasomboon | AP