Via WWF, regional cooperation around Mekong River issues is at a low ebb at present: Ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam meeting next week in the Lao city of Luang Prabang must put derailed decision-making on Mekong River mainstream dams back on track or risk sabotaging management of one of the world’s great rivers, [...]
Read more »Via Asia News Network, a report that Laos feels it is in compliance regarding its dam building activities on the Mekong: Laos has complied with the procedures for notification, prior consultation and agreement under the 1995 Mekong Agreement before starting construction of the Xayaboury dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River, according to a [...]
Read more »Via The Economist, a report on Laos’ admission that work is going ahead on a controversial Mekong dam: THE Mekong river, snaking its way through the heart of South-East Asia, has long sustained the world’s biggest and most productive inland fishery, supplying protein for around 65m mainly poor people from four riparian countries, Laos, Thailand, [...]
Read more »Via BBC Online, a report on Cambodia’s recent approval of a controversial hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Mekong River: The joint venture involves Cambodian, Chinese and Vietnamese investment of $781m (£488m) and is due to be completed within five years. The project in northern Stung Treng province is known as Lower Sesan 2. [...]
Read more »Courtesy of AlertNet, a look at some Thai citizens’ efforts to oppose Laotian hydropower projects: The inhabitants of Ban Pak Ing Tai, a leafy village in Thailand’s far north nestled between the mighty Mekong River and one of its tributaries, know only too well what dams can do. This used to be a fishing village [...]
Read more »Courtesy of The Diplomat, an article on Laos’ decision to suspend work on the Xayaburi dam: After months of speculation and ambiguity, Laos finally publicly confirmed on Friday that work had been suspended on the controversial Xayaburi dam, the first large mainstream dam along the resource-rich Mekong River which runs through China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, [...]
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