Isan villagers ask court to halt petroleum drilling

An environment conservation group in Isan, Northern Thailand, has requested the court to halt petroleum drilling.

About 30 village activists opposing drilling in a potential petroleum field called Dongmoon located in Kranuan District of the northeastern province of Khon Kaen at the border with Kalasin Province on Tuesday, 6 October 2015, requested Khon Kaen Provincial Administrative Court to hold an emergency hearing to halt the drilling operation.

Mekong Delta heads for troubled waters

Lush greenery in the lower Mekong region sprawls as far as the eye can see, an illustration of just how fertile the delta is. The endless green fields scored by the river’s nine tributaries, which the Vietnamese call “Nine Dragons”, explain why this area is one of the world’s major food baskets.

It houses the richest inland fishery and accounts for more than a fifth of the world’s rice exports, although looks can be deceptive. Encroaching sea water from the south, a proliferation of hydro dams in the north and large-scale sand mining are endangering the delta, officials warn.

Dolphin Numbers Fall, but WWF Still Hopeful

Over 400 people joined in WWF’s “Dolphin Day” celebration in Kratie town Tuesday morning, parading in dolphin-emblazoned T-shirts up the riverfront and through the market. Though local enthusiasm is palpable, the bottom line is sobering. The number of endangered Irawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River continues to drop, the WWF announced in a press conference following the celebration. A population that once numbered in the hundreds has now fallen to just 80 adult animals.

Proper safeguards needed for long-term AEC benefits

Asean countries need to integrate appropriate safeguards to ensure inclusiveness and sustainability in any benefits to be brought about by the Asean Economic Community (AEC), experts said recently.

At a Bangkok symposium on “Shared solutions: Safeguarding sustainable development in the Mekong region”, Venkatachalam Anbumozhi, senior energy economist at the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia, said AEC will propel infrastructure investment in the Mekong region.

Delta through the lenses of foreign correspondents

In mid August, many correspondents from Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, China, and Britain came to Mekong River Delta. They wanted to witness the impacts of climate change, sea level rise and certainly mainstream dams upstream Mekong River, affecting the granary, fish, and shrimp of the world.

Gradual loss of the Southeast Asian Rice Field

Hundreds of kilometers of riverbank and shoreline in the Mekong River Delta are being eroded dramatically with hundreds and even thousands of hectars of land swept away annually. The place widely known as the field of Southeast Asia, annually produces 24-25 millions tonnes of rice (6-8 million tonnes of rice export) and 1.2 million tonnes of catfish, and 500,000 tonnes of shrimp, mostly for export. That field is being lost.