Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
A Rangoon regional minister explained in Tuesday’s parliamentary session plans to develop an area across four townships for a special economic zone and a new airport terminal.
According to the statement by Daw Nilar Kyaw—the divisional minister for electricity, industry and transportation—Kwan Chan Gone, Letkokkon, Kawhmu and Dala townships are listed as hosting the initiative.
The Prayut Chan-o-cha government made an out-of-the-blue decision that paves the way for the demolition of the Mekong River’s rocky outcrops for the sake of “improved waterway navigation”.
The justification offered is both weak and unjustified. The public was neither consulted nor informed while the well-being of the ecology of the world’s tenth longest river is at risk. And the party gaining the most significant trade benefits will obviously be China.
Water is an irreplaceable component in the fight against climate change but it is also its biggest victim. The World Economic Forum named water the number one threat in 2015 and it was also ranked a top risk in 2016.
Over the last 12 months, the world was given a sneak preview of the global water wars scientists have predicted for the century ahead, and tensions surrounding dams and the control of water within drought situations were flashpoints for conflict. Companies can expect water use to hit their bottom lines harder and prices of electricity are likely to go up as hydropower comes under threat.
Natural disasters and environmental pollution can reduce GDP by 0.6 per cent per year from 2016-20, according to the National Centre for Socio-economic Information and Forecast (NCIF) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Therefore, changes are needed to reduce the economy’s reliance on non-renewable energy.
After a year of changes in the global and domestic energy market, Thailand can expect further challenges in the years ahead.
Of these, the most crucial issues are the development of two coal-fired power plants in the South, the retirement of the Erawan and Bongkot gas blocks and the long-delayed 21st round of new concessions for 29 petroleum blocks.
Farmers and fishermen in downstream countries are complaining about the impact of Mekong River dams located upstream in both China and Laos.
But a think tank now has a plan to reduce the damage done to crops and fish stocks by hydroelectric dams. Its focus is on Laos, Southeast Asia’s poorest country, which it says could benefit from scaling back on some of its planned dams.
A break in a critical waterway shut down a hydro-electric dam in southern Laos and raised questions about the quality of construction at the facility that sends most of the power it generates to Vietnam.
While officials said the Dec. 16 break in the Xekaman 3 facility’s penstock posed no threat to people living downstream, it marked the second breakdown in the tunnel that channels water to the power turbine, RFA’s Lao Service has learned.
The Myanmar government decided in February, 2011 to postpone the Myitsone hydro-electricity dam which is to be built at the upper stream of the Ayeyarwady River. The justification was that the project would be harmful to the country’s economy and society.
The poor design and management of Vietnam’s power-generating dams are likely one of the main factors that led to recent deadly floods that inundated the country’s central provinces, experts tell RFA.
Flooding over the past two months has devastated Vietnam’s central provinces, killed dozens of people and caused millions of dollars in economic damage as unusually heavy rain has pelted the country.
A rainbow-headed snake and a dragon-like lizard are among 163 new species that scientists recently discovered in the Greater Mekong region, conservation group WWF said on Monday, adding rapid development in the area, from dams to mines, was threatening wildlife survival.
