News

Chinese dams and the Mekong drought

The latest reports from the Lower Mekong Basin are cause for growing concern that another period of drought will succeed that of 2019, affecting Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Expected rainfall from late May through June and July has not arrived, and the level of ...

Agencies told to find ways to mitigate Laos dam impact

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon urged authorities concerned to discuss and find ways to mitigate the possible environmental impact from the Sanakham Dam project in Laos in the upcoming scheduled public hearings.“[The committee] is concerned about the impact of the dam, as it is located ...

Bangkok Post Reporter

Rethink 'Asia battery' plan

Two years ago this month, the villagers of Attapeu in southern Laos encountered their worst nightmare when the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower dam, which was under construction, failed. Massive torrents of water swept through several villages, causing 71 deaths, heavy damage to properties and left around ...

South-East Asia’s biggest river is drying up

Fish writhe frantically in the shallow pool, as their schoolmates stranded on the exposed sandbar breathe their last. It is November, the end of the monsoon season, yet the water in the Mekong river is perilously low. On this stretch, in north-eastern Thailand, the bank ...

Mekong river groups urge China to show transparency after dam report

Groups working to protect the Mekong River have called for greater transparency and cooperation from China after a report that Chinese dams held back water during a damaging drought in downstream countries last year.China has disputed the findings of the US government-funded study and said ...

Study finds Chinese dams held back Mekong waters

China’s Mekong River dams held back large amounts of water during a damaging drought in downstream countries last year despite China having higher-than-average water levels upstream, a US research company said in a study.China’s government disputed the findings, saying there was low rainfall during last ...

Northeastern folk voice fears over new Mekong dam

Unseasonal drought, floods and the negative impact of hydropower projects on the Mekong River’s ecology were major concerns raised by residents of northeastern provinces at a public hearing on the Luang Prabang Dam on Tuesday.Pradap Klatkhemphet, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the National Water ...

Apinya Wipatayotin

Thais Living Along Mekong Struggle from Drought, Effects of Dams

Dam operations upstream combined with a drought have caused a severe drop in water levels along the Mekong River, on which tens of millions of people rely for their livelihoods through fishing or farming, say Thais who live by the banks of the great waterway.BenarNews ...

Nontarat Phaicharoen

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 ...

Editorial

Civic groups call for reviews into Mekong River dam projects

Civic groups on Sunday lodged a petition calling for governments of countries along the Mekong River to review upcoming dam projects.The petition was on Sunday submitted to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by the Mekong Conservation Network in the North during a forum held ...

Wassayos Ngamkham

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