Courtesy of OOSKA News, an article on the potential impact that hydropower projects planned within the Mekong River basin could have upon flows: If the hydropower projects planned within the Mekong River basin are completed, they will accumulate as much as 16 percent of the river’s water volume, or 475 billion cubic meters a year, [...]
Read more »Courtesy of The Diplomat, commentary on the the region’s concerns over the Xayaburi Dam: Vietnam and Cambodia have finally found their voice. After months of obfuscating their position on the Lao government’s insistence on constructing the Xayaburi Dam and blocking the main stream of the Mekong River, leaders from both countries have pushed diplomatic niceties [...]
Read more »Via The Guardian, an update on the long simmering regional argument over the Xayaburi dam: Vietnam urged Laos to halt construction of a $3.5bn (£2.2bn) hydropower dam on Mekong River pending further study, environmental activists said on Friday. Cambodia, downriver from the Xayaburi dam, accused Laos of failing to consult on the project, activists said. [...]
Read more »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 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. [...]
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