BBC Radio 4’s Costing the Earth program explores how the government of Laos is determined to develop the nation by building hydroelectric dams for electricity, yet many people in the downstream countries of Cambodia and Vietnam are worried that the flow of the life-giving waters of the Mekong will be much reduced and fish life devastated. Peter Hadfield reports from the banks of the Mekong
Category: Cambodia
China’s ‘Belt and Road’ Policy Benefits Cambodia, Analysts Say
The Asian Development Bank figures that some $26 billion in investment will be needed by 2030 to meet regional infrastructure demands.
Challenges of Sustainable Water Management in Cambodia
While hydropower is considered controversial and attracts increasing amounts of critical scrutiny regionally, especially from international media and NGOs, the irrigation sector is considered more benign and end-user friendly, and thus far has largely escaped much critical scrutiny, even though it is often more likely to fail and have wider ecological implications than hydropower.
Vietnam urges Laos to rethink Mekong River dams
The Mekong Delta will disappear in the next several decades once Pak Beng Dam and another 10 planned hydropower dams are built on the Mekong River in Laos and Cambodia, delegates warned at a conference on Saturday in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.
Cambodia Investigates Vietnamese Logging Operation
Cambodia’s Environment Minister Say Sam Al stated on Sunday that the government was investigating fresh evidence of industrial-scale illegal logging by Vietnamese companies in northeastern Cambodia and had already been probing related reports for the past year.
Research: Economic Evaluation of Hydropower Projects in the Lower Mekong Basin
This paper is an update of a previous study entitled ‘Working Paper on Economic, Environmental and Social Impacts of Hydropower Development in the Lower Mekong Basin’ published in 2015. This was a revised, condensed version of the report ‘Planning Approaches for Water Resources Development in the Lower Mekong Basin’
The Real Trouble With China’s Belt and Road
Though Beijing has made inroads in addressing some concerns, the true structural challenges for the initiative remain.
Vietnam Still Smuggling Timber From Cambodia Despite Ban, NGO Investigation Finds
Corrupt government officials and military personnel in Vietnam have been smuggling huge quantities of illegal timber from Cambodia, despite the latter country’s ban on log exports to its neighbor, according to a new report by an investigative nongovernmental organization issued on Monday.
At ADB meeting, the bank and civil society grapple over reform
During the first major session held on the first day of the Asian Development Bank’s 50th annual meeting in Yokohama, an activist handed President Takehiko Nakao a pair of gifts. The first was a photo book, entitled “A Visual Testimony of Asian Development Bank’s 50 Years of Destruction,” the second a financing trend analysis: “Missing the Mark ADB@50.”
Can ASEAN Save the Mekong River?
As discussions continue, the future of one of the world’s greatest rivers is as bleak as ever.