Parts of the Mekong River in Laos have risen suddenly during the dry season by as much as 12 cm in one day, threatening fish stocks, wildlife and aquatic plants vital to livelihoods.
Category: Thailand
Mekong Dams Bring Hardship to Thai Villagers
Dams have subverted the Mekong ecosystem, bringing drought during the monsoon season and high waters when it should be dry. That has forever changed the lives of those who depend on the river for food and work in northeastern Thailand, a poor region bordering Laos and Cambodia. Vijitra Duangdee reports for VOA news, from Nong Khai, Thailand.
The Mekong’s calling you, Sue Perkins
Sue learned that the local Tibetan Chinese have a deep reverence for the Mekong and refrain from damaging or polluting the river so that folks downstream can also enjoy “clean drinking water”.
Inside Thailand’s fight against toxic annual wildfires – ‘it’s just getting worse and worse’
We are told during our visit to one that about 1,000 fire fronts are burning in the area.
PM slammed over clean air bill decision
These two bills are a clean air management bill initiated by 12,000 people in a signature campaign and proposed to parliament on July 13 last year; and a bill on transporting and discharging toxic substances into the environment proposed by the Move Forward Party.
Report attributes 32,000 premature deaths in Thailand to air pollution
The report cites the PM2.5 pollution particles as the main culprit as particles in that size range are the most likely to travel deeply into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs.
Environment minister dives in to see Pattaya’s sorry coral reefs for himself
Scuba divers have criticized Pattaya’s reefs for decades, bemoaning the abuse they’ve taken from pollution, fishing boat anchors and “sea walkers”, who are untrained divers using surface-supplied air to walk on the ocean bottom. Recent photos showed tourist sea walkers picking up and moving coral, which can be killed simply by being touched.
Mixed fates for captive elephants sent back to villages amid Thai tourism collapse
With tourism collapsing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2,700 captive elephants used for tourism purposes in Thailand faced a crisis.
Thailand taps groundwater as it enters hottest season
The groundwater department has sent geologists and more than 80 teams to areas not served by irrigation networks and regions typically hit by shortages as dam water levels are depleted.
Wildfires in Northern Thailand Causing a Dangerous Choking Smog
Air quality was especially serious in Chiang Rai, where particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and less in diameter (PM2.5) reached 300 microgrammes per cubic meter of air over the past 24 hours. The safe threshold in Thailand is set at 50 μg/m³.