The government of Laos has submitted a request to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) secretariat to construct a dam on the Mekong River in the country’s northern Oudomxay province.
Category: Region
Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
A call for basin-wide energy plans
Preparatory work for the next big dam on the Mekong — Pak Beng — in northern Laos has begun. This news supports the widespread narrative that the current rapid pace of dam construction on the Mekong River will continue until the entire river is turned into a series of reservoirs. Certainly the construction of even a few large dams will severely impact food security in the world’s most productive freshwater fishery and sharply reduce the delivery of nutrient-rich sediment needed to sustain agriculture, especially in Cambodia and Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.
However, our ongoing research and communication with regional policymakers provides compelling evidence that not all of the planned dams will be built due to rising political and financial risks in the region. As a consequence, we have concluded in our most recent report that it is not too late for the adoption of a new approach that would optimise the inescapable “nexus” of tradeoffs among energy generation, food security, and water use and better protect the core ecology of the river system for the benefit of future generations.
Sambo Dam Depends on Feasibility Study
Following multiple marches and petitions from youth groups and environmentalists concerning the proposed Sambo Hydro dam in Kratie province, the government has announced it is conducting feasibility studies into the project.
Can Myanmar’s hydropower study truly be for the people?
In recent weeks, violent clashes in Kayin State have further disrupted Myanmar’s fragile peace process. Fighting between the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the government-sponsored Border Guard Force (BGF) in Mae Tha Waw areas of Hlaingbwe township, and more recently near Kawkareik township, has displaced over a thousand people. Entire families have fled their homes and are left stranded with limited access to food and assistance, producing nothing short of a humanitarian crisis. Across the border in Thailand, nearly 60,000 people remain in refugee camps, having fled ongoing conflict over the past two decades.
‘Environmental refugees’ in Mekong River Delta expected in future, experts say
An environmental refugee is defined by Prof Essam El-Hinnawi as someone forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption.
Vietnam, instead of ‘environmental refugees’, uses the world ‘resettlement’ or ‘migration’, because ‘refugee’ proves to be a ‘sensitive word’ in Vietnamese.
Pak Beng – The Third Domino in The Series of Mainstream Dams on The Lower Mekong in Laos
On a visit to the Asian Institute of Technology AIT on 10-15-2012 to inspect the mockup of the Xayaburi Hydropower Dam, Mr. Viraphonh Viravong, Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines of Laos, the “brain” behind all development projects for hydropower dams in Laos asserted: “There is no question of Lao PDR not developing its hydropower potential. The only question is how to do it sustainably.”
New Cambodian and Myanmar Journalism Networks Call on Editors and Decision Makers to Support Environmental Reporting
At two public fora in October, Cambodian and Myanmar journalists called for editors and decision makers to work on improving environmental reporting and the availability of quality information.
The events, Cambodia’s “Editor’s Forum on Sustainability” and Myanmar’s “The Health of Rivers” roundtable discussion attracted a combined 73 participants ranging from Cambodia’s Minister of Environment H.E Say Samal to key editors and reporters from the countries’ local media.
The media’s role in telling environmental stories
Journalists have the unique ability to help accelerate climate action through advocacy and education, but their potential to help achieve the global climate goals agreed in Paris last year still remains largely untapped, said media and environmental experts in Singapore.
Speaking at the inaugural Asian Environmental Journalists Forum, organised by non-profit Singapore Environment Council and media organisation Eco-Business, panellists said that shrinking budgets, a lack of public interest and the ever increasing complexity and geographical scope of climate issues are just some of the challenges that journalists face when trying to report on environmental issues today.
Working group plans to finish the guideline on Environmental Impacts Assessment by early 2017
Ministry of Environment (MoE) and CSO working on environmental protection recognized that this regional guideline on environmental impacts assessment is very crucial to boost meaningful public participation in Environmental Impact Assessment process in the Mekong region.
Mining will be regulated: Kachin State MP
Kachin State MP Kyaw Kyaw Win said on Sunday that the state parliament would enact regional laws to control the mining industry. He spoke at a meeting organised by the Myanmar Green Network in Myitkyina Township.