Many of the details of the study have yet to be worked out, from exactly which tributaries to focus on to how much data China will share on how it operates its dams. To date, China has refused to reveal how much water its dams release. Furthermore, there is concern that China could use the collaboration as an opportunity to push the narrative that its dams’ disruption of the Mekong’s seasonal flood cycle actually helps downstream countries, despite a lack of evidence, and that some MRC officials make similar claims.
Category: Region
Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
Developing sustainable climate resilient infrastructure solutions in Cambodia
The Asian Development Bank, with support from the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience of the Climate Investment Funds, is assisting Cambodia to build climate-resilient infrastructure through a $588 million investment program called Strategic Program for Climate Resilience. The program led to the development of new regulations, technical guidelines, and legal requirements on construction of infrastructure specific to the nation’s three distinct geographic regions: the coastal areas, the highlands, and the central lowlands.
Vietnam proposes establishment of comprehensive database on multi-dimensional impacts of sea-level rise
Addressing the UN Security Council last week resident Nguyen Xuan Phuc proposed that the UN should establish a comprehensive database system on multi-dimensional impacts of sea-level rise in support of global response policy formulation.
Thai water project gives Beijing a new Belt and Road foothold
Thailand’s military-dominated government is paving the way for a Chinese state-owned enterprise to land a water diversion project, the first of its kind in the country and a likely steppingstone for China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Cambodia: Climate change, Mekong dams threaten world’s biggest inland fishery
One of the world’s richest inland fishing grounds, Tonle Sap lake nourishes tens of millions of people. But climate change and dam construction are threatening livelihoods at the lake, as well as regional food security.
Lao workers on China-backed railway project go unpaid
Twenty at one work site are paid after they cut off power to the project, but more than a hundred are still waiting for their pay.. They earn between one million kip (U.S. $100) and two million kip each month.
ADB helps GMS in environmental sustainability
It covers six priority themes: building climate and disaster resilience; facilitating low carbon transitions; promoting climate-smart landscapes; enhancing environmental quality through pollution control and sustainable waste management; deploying digital technologies for climate actions and environmental sustainability; and financing low-carbon and climate-resilient infrastructure and technologies, including demonstrating climate and disaster risk financing instruments.
Multimillion dollar Hoi An embankment subsides in just four years
An embankment section along the iconic Hoai River in the popular tourism Unesco recognized town of Hoi An in central Vietnam has suffered heavy subsidence just four years after it was built.
ringing clean air to 4 billion people in Asia
insights from the Joint Forum is that many of the main sources of urban air pollution come from beyond city borders. For example, it is difficult to prevent air pollution episodes in Bangkok, Thailand because urban and rural sources mix together, forming a toxic brew that is more challenging to manage because of its multiple origins.
Lifeline for some the world’s most precious biodiverse habitats announced
The Western Congo Basin, the Lower Mekong and the Kavango-Zambezi region and more set to benefit from the £100 million fund. Projects will tackle biodiversity loss, combat climate change and help deliver our goal to protect 30% of the world’s land and sea by 2030.