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Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.

Harnessing Sesan River: Cambodia and its goal for electricity self-sufficiency

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

For the past ten years, Cambodia’s economy has been growing by an average of 7 percent and the government has set the sight to upgrade the country to the status of middle-income country in 2030 by promoting investments especially garment industry and service sector. And this has spurred the increasing need of electricity.

According to the Electricity Authority of Cambodia, Cambodia bought 40-50 percent of its energy need from neighbouring countries. The Southeast Asia Energy Outlookj 2015 report which was undertaken by the International Energy Agency predicted that energy need of the region would increase to three times of the current need in year 2040 and coal was designated by IEA as the main source of fuel for electricity generating.

China May Shelve Plans to Build Dams on Its Last Wild River

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

On a roadside next to the Nu River, Xiong Xiangnan is trying to sell fish to tourists. He doesn’t look like a traditional fisherman. Xiong sports a pompadour and wears a brown jacket, jeans, and white Crocs, with a money purse slung across one shoulder. As several of his friends stand around smoking, Xiong makes his pitch.

The fish were very hard to catch, he says. The nets must be set at night and checked early in the morning. That’s why he’s charging 240 yuan—about $37—for the biggest trophy in his buckets.

Behind Xiong, the Nu River flows freely, bumbling with rapids, swirling with eddies. Some of this water has spilled down from glaciers on the Tibetan plateau, filling a channel that snakes 1,700 miles (2,736 kilometers) through China, then Myanmar and Thailand, before spilling into the Andaman Sea.

Livelihoods in jeopardy as Vietnam’s Mekong Delta struggles with sediment loss

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

Duong Cong To checks the water of the Hau River next to his house and he is not happy at all.

“It’s too clean,” he says.

The 72-year-old has spent all his life by the river, one of two tributaries of the Mekong and the main source of alluvium for fish farms and plantations in southern Vietnam.

Over the past years he has noticed a significant change in the river: it keeps changing its color from a reddish brown to an ocean-like blue.

“The water should look red. Now it’s crystal clear like there’s nothing in there.”

Strengthening EIA In Asia

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

This report was prepared for the Asia EIA Conference 2016 organised on 10 May by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOEJ). The conference was held under the theme of enhancing EIA as a sustainable development planning tool in Asia in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and in cooperation with the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).

The report is based on a study conducted in seven Asian countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Korea, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam, on their national EIA systems and their implementation, between September 2014 and February 2016. The report aims to summarise and analyse challenges, opportunities and good practices on EIA in these countries to propose possible ways forward as well as potential mutual learning points for strengthening EIA implementation and thus advancing towards a sustainable society. Findings are presented in four segments: (i) quality of EIA (screening and scoping, impact assessment and environmental management and monitoring plan (EMMP), and review and approval of EIA); (ii) information disclosure and public participation; (iii) EMMP implementation; and (iv) Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and upstream EIA.

China-led AIIB Looks Toward Co-Financing Projects, At Least Initially

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

Early last year, when the United States’ Western European allies began eagerly signing up for China’s nascent Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as founding members, it seemed as if Washington was confident that the AIIB would emerge as a poorly governed tool of Chinese geoeconomic statecraft, beholden to lower standards than the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the highly experienced international development banks. At the core of these concerns was a perception that the AIIB would be supplementary instead of complementary to existing development banks–both in terms of its governance and the projects it selected.

A year and a few weeks ago, the AIIB’s 57 founding members finalized its charter; in the final days of 2015, the members ratified the bank’s Articles of Agreement. Finally, early in the new year, the AIIB opened its doors for business. Now, just over three months into its operations, the AIIB has decided on its first projects. As I’d briefly discussed in April, the AIIB’s first projects have demonstrated that concerns a year ago in Washington and Tokyo may have been overstated. For now, the bank appears to be pursuing a modest and complementary approach in selecting its projects.

Southeast Asia’s Rivers Run Dry

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

The dry months before the monsoon rains arrive are often tough for Cambodian fishermen and farmers. But with rivers drying up and drinking water running out, conditions have rarely been as bad as they are now.

The current drought is linked to El Niño, which has been disrupting weather patterns around the world. But the harsh conditions today might only be foreshadowing far worse to come, climate scientists say. Climate change is expected to continue to affect the Mekong Basin region, while future droughts are expected to be exacerbated by a string of major hydropower dam projects.

Experts fear that the present crisis could become the new normal for Cambodia and its neighbors, which have also been hit hard by record temperatures and a long period of extremely dry weather.

The four challenges threatening the Mekong Delta

By Paritta Wangkiat

Located at the end of the Mekong River, the Mekong Delta of Vietnam was formed about 6,000 years from sediments of the river flowing into the sea plus the process of sea regression.

After the country’s unification in 1975, Vietnam embarked on the planning and exploitation of the delta. The country has successfully solved the alkaline, acidic and salty problems to develop agriculture, particularly rice cultivation in this region. In 1986, the total rice output of the Mekong Delta was around 7 million tones and currently i25 million tonnes, accounting for 90% of Vietnam’s total rice expert turnover.

Residents in Myitsone urge President to end Myitsone Dam project

By Paritta Wangkiat

Residents in the Myitsone Dam project area have urged President Htin Kyaw and the new government to end the Myitsone project so that relocated villagers can return to their villages

“If the new government does not end this project, how must we, the residents, live? Our hearts are pounding. I want to cry. We have suffered repeatedly from troubles. If the project is not cancelled, I am sure that I will die there,” Ja Hkaung, whose farmland in Tan Hpe village was confiscated due to the project, said in a press conference.

Hun Sen Declares Major Forestry Shakeup

By Paritta Wangkiat

In what he characterized as a shakeup aimed at curtailing the autocratic whims of the forestry and fisheries administrations, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on Thursday that he was placing both bodies under the authority of provincial governments.

The premier delivered a speech canvassing a wide range of environmental issues in which he also said those holding remaining forest concessions—which date back to the 1990s and were placed under moratorium in 2001—must hand them back or have them forcibly reclaimed by the state.

China’s rise takes centre stage at ADB annual meeting

By Nantiya Tangwisutijit

China’s growing economic influence through the One Belt, One Road initiative and the newly operational Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank were key topics of discussion at the Asian Development Bank’s annual conference in Frankfurt this week.
The Chinese-led AIIB has 57 founding members with others expected to join. The One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project aims to strengthen infrastructure on the land and sea routes from China through Central Asia and Southeast Asia respectively – incorporating some 60 separate states.

Both initiatives affect Myanmar, as a member country of the AIIB and as a host to Chinese OBOR infrastructure projects – including a recently approved US$3 billion refinery near the southern city of Dawei.