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: Region
Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
Civil society sets advocacy targets for AIIB
A year after the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s launch, NGO leaders involved see now as a key moment to build a constructive relationship. The $100 billion bank has yet to announce many of its own substantial financing projects, choosing instead to partner with other multilateral development banks. The bank is also still staffing up and building its internal systems — exactly the time when CSOs hope their voices can be heard.
Myanmar MP demands environmental protection
Myanmar MP, Dr Aung Khin, representing Pyin Oo Lwin, said, due to rapid deforestation, the country faced its severest weather conditions in 2015 and 2016. The country’s efforts to conserve the natural environment was at the lowest stage. The country ranked 164th out of 178 countries in the 2014 Environmental Performance Index, which suggested that more needed to be done for the conservation of natural resources, the MP said.
Vietnam’s dry season to be severe this year: experts
Mekong Delta farmers experienced the worst dry season in history in 2016, and are now facing another severe season in 2017
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.
Fishing ban remains a year on after Formosa toxic spill along Vietnam’s central coast
The Vietnamese government has asked four central provinces hit by the April 2016 environment disaster linked to the Taiwanese steel conglomerate Formosa to uphold a fishing ban within 20 nautical miles of the coast as the environment has yet to recover
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.
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.