News
'Missing water' in dams spark fears of a drought next year
The government is facing a challenge of adding more water in 38 major dams across the country during the one-and-half month golden period of rainfall after realising that less water has flowed into the dams than expected.State agencies, including the military, are looking into the ...
Apinya Wipatayotin
OPINION: Mekong Drought Reveals Need for Regional Rules-based Water Cooperation
The severe drought currently faced by farmers and fishers in the Mekong basin is a disaster that reveals many things. It reveals the extent to which large dams now increasingly control river water levels. It reveals too the limits to cooperation between the countries sharing ...
Dams drying up, drought may drag into 2020
With water levels still critical at several dams around Thailand, officials speculate that drought impacts could persist into 2020, possibly having a catastrophic effect on next year’s growing season.In the West, Vajiralongkorn Dam in Kanchanaburi is at 51 per cent capacity with 4,500 million cubic ...
The Nation Reporter
Worrying days for the Mekong
Water levels at Southeast Asia’s largest river may be at its lowest levels in a century.Low rainfall, high temperatures and poor dam regulations are contributing to a historic low at the Mekong, affecting the region’s agriculture and fishing industries and leading to rapidly drying taps.Keep ...
Women’s rights and river protection
Usually at this time of year during the dry season in northern Thailand, the Mekong River recedes, and sand and pebble beaches appear. Covering the pebbles, through the clear and shallow water, one can see the pale green kai, a river weed of the Mekong. ...
Not enough water left for rice farmers in Northeast
A water shortage is threatening to soon strike several northeastern provinces. At risk are Roi Et, Maha Sarakham and Yasothon. Some parts of the Chi River in Yasothon are already running dry and the water level in the Maha Sarakham-based Wang Yang Dam is running low. ...
The Nation Reporter
Best of 2018: Disaster after disaster on the Mekong
From sea to source, the Mekong River stretches nearly 5,000 km through six countries. More than 60 million people depend on its waters for survival, and it is second only to the Amazon in its biodiversity. Photographers Gareth Bright and Luke Forsyth spent eighteen months ...
Dam claims hold no water: experts
Irrigation official agrees conditions have changed since the Bt2.3billion project was initially proposed. Academics warn that a dam newly approved for southern Nakhon Si Thammarat province will intensify conflicts between citizens and the authorities and destroy a bountiful forest ecosystem, while bringing no substantial benefit in ...
Pratch Rujivanarom
Royal Irrigation Department pleads for water conservation
The Royal Irrigation Department is pleading with the public to help conserve water despite the fact that there is a good supply of water in dams nationwide. Official records suggest that nearly 60 billion cubic meters of water are currently stored in reservoirs across the ...
Kitti Cheevasittiyanon
Protest held against planned dam in Phatthalung
A group of about 150 “photographers” on Sunday (Oct 7) morning gathered on the bridge across Khlong Pak Pra canal in Khuan Khanun district of this southern province in a symbolic protest against the Royal Irrigation Department’s plan to build a dam across the canal. ...
Assawin Pakkawan