Category: Region
Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
Yangon gets smarter
Yangon is introducing smart meters to control the electricity supply, monitor usage and bill customers in a single automated system.
Interview: China’s Mekong Dam-building Mindset ‘Exported Downstream’ to Cambodia and Laos
Despite a stack of peer-reviewed studies that show that building lots of upstream dams on the Mekong will have devastating impacts, there are insufficient decision-making mechanisms recognizing the risks.
Lao Villager Dies After 8 Years in Jail Over Land Grab Protest
Sy Phong, one of two men kept in jail after 23 other protesters had been released, had been held without trial and died in April, a local source told RFA’s Lao Service this week.
Pattaya needs big clean-up
The blackened sea is just the tip of the pollution iceberg for Thailand’s world-famous tourist destination that used to make Thailand proud.
Tourists warned not to swim in polluted sea off Pattaya
A water treatment facility was built at a cost of about 124 billion baht to treat waste water from hotels. However, it malfunctioned after a short period in operation and was then abandoned due to lack of budget for maintenance.
Thailand on Red Alert in Bid to Stop ‘Pig Ebola’ Crossing Border
China, the largest pork producer and consumer, has been trying to contain the outbreak since August. But with no vaccine, the virus keeps spreading.
China-Laos Railway opens new horizons for fruit growers in Southwest China’s Yunnan
For decades, local fruit growers have complained about the crumbling roads that have impeded them from efficiently transporting fruits to other regions in China.
‘Lives are cheap’: Grief, anger as landslide rocks Myanmar’s jade hills
The government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi pledged to clean up the industry when it took power in 2016, but activists say little has changed.