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.
Category: Region
Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
What’s at stake in China’s plan to blow up islands in the Mekong
The company charged with developing a trade route along the Mekong River (the state-owned Chinese Communications Construction Company) is set to dynamite river islands
How will Southeast Asia feed its people in 2030?
Rapid population growth and climate volatility in Southeast Asia will push up demand for food in the region by 40 per cent by 2050. How can Southeast Asia put food on every table?
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.
China wants to dynamite the Mekong River to increase trade
China wants to blow up rapids in Thailand and Laos to make way for cargo ships (ABC News)
Environmental groups in Thailand are concerned about China’s plan to blast shallow parts of the Mekong River to allow heavy shipping.
Myanmar and Thai NGOs support ‘Nation’ reporter hit by suit for ‘defaming’ mining firm
EIGHTY Thai and Myanmar NGOs have voiced their support for The Nation journalist Pratch Rujivanarom, who has been sued by a Thai mining company over a report about the environmental impacts of a tin mine affecting local people in Myanmar.
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.
Cash and Chemicals: For Laos, Chinese Banana Boom a Blessing and Curse
The Chinese offered villagers up to $720 per hectare to rent their land, much of it fallow for years, said Kongkaew, 59, the village chief. They wanted to grow bananas on it.