Opposition to a planned $3 billion coal-fired power plant in eastern Myanmar is highlighting the challenges facing ’s government in crafting a coherent energy policy in one of Asia’s poorest and most electricity-starved countries.
Category: Region
Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
South Korean CSOs Want Government, Company to be Accountable For Lao Dam Disaster
Called for their government and the main partner in a joint venture to take responsibility for the deadly breach of an auxiliary dam at the South Korean-backed Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower project in Laos.
Stung Treng combats illegal deforestation
Stung Treng provincial authorities on Friday ordered a crackdown on more than 200 families who had burned forests illegally, urging them to put an end to all illegal land clearing activities.
Vietnam to increase environment fees on oil, petrol
Vietnam will apply higher environmental protection taxes on oil and petroleum products from Jan. 1, 2019 to increase tax collection by over 15,700 billion Vietnamese dong (682.6 million U.S. dollars) a year.
Don’t forget Sombath, says Shui Meng Ng, wife of disappeared Laotian activist
The unsolved case of disappeared Laotian development worker Sombath Somphone is brought to light in a documentary that is screening at this year’s FreedomFilmFest in Malaysia
Activists blast Myanmar timber deal: ‘There is no transparency at all’
It’s a “shadowy agreement” made by the Myanmar government to allow the export of 5,000 tons of hardwood timber, including 3,000 tons of highly prized teak.
As sand mining grows, Asia’s deltas are sinking, water experts warn
The Mekong delta is home to 17 million people, a major source of rice for the region and it underpins a quarter of Vietnam’s GDP – yet most of it is sinking.