The projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements.
Category: Analysis
Years in the making, Vietnam’s Mekong Delta policy takes the long view
An early indicator of the Vietnamese regime’s ability to adapt its policies to more challenging conditions will be how it chooses to defend the delta seacoast.
Mekong monitoring adds to US-China tensions
China welcomes constructive suggestions from countries outside the region on the development and utilization of water resources by countries in the region. But we firmly oppose malicious moves to drive a wedge between us.”
Analysis: Vietnam’s drive toward electricity reform
Vietnam has instituted a top-down reform of its electricity sector in response to the need to shift away from coal and its growing list of associated problems.
China’s BRI strategy and Laos
Consistent engagement with China could potentially allow Beijing to have an easy hold over them and become a tool to push through their own strategic interests.
An Uncertain Future for Laos
“… a communist regime ‘hell-bent on prioritizing major projects… whatever the social and ecological consequences locally and downstream.'”
Little Laos teeters towards big debt crisis
Laos’ finances are ‘inadequate’ to meet its foreign debt payments, and with Chinese loans and investment in all sectors of the economy, any future development will be more or less directed by Chinese interests.
China’s post-COVID-19 woes to flow through the Mekong
China will struggle to rebuild its productive capacity, supply chains and markets. Therefore, China is likely to turn to consolidating power in its own backyard — the Mekong region of Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
River-groundwater hot spot for arsenic
Hanoi has markedly increased the extraction of groundwater to satisfy its steadily increasing water demand; this showed to be the main trigger for arsenic pollution in the aquifer.
Thailand’s Big Water Challenge
Water shortages remain a huge problem for the Southeast Asian country.