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Tonle Sap: On the Debt, Drought and Politics of Cambodia’s Most Important Lake
February 12th, 2022
Via Third Pole, an interview on Tonle Sap lake: Over the past three decades, Southeast Asia’s largest lake has declined precipitously. For centuries, the flooding of the Mekong would reverse the course of the river, causing Tonle Sap lake to swell up to six times its dry season size and creating what was once the […]
Read more »‘Not Enough Water’: Cambodia’s Farmers Face Changing Climate
January 19th, 2022
Via Al Jazeera, an article on how communities around Southeast Asia’s biggest lake are feeling the effects of drought: During Cambodia’s monsoon season, rice farmer Sam Vongsay’s backyard fills with water and the plastic trash of his houseboat-dwelling neighbours as the Tonle Sap lake grows with floodwaters from the Mekong River. But during the dry […]
Read more »Dam Battles Converge on Cambodia’s 3S Rivers
September 16th, 2021
Via Circle of Blue, an article on tensions between fishermen and dam operators in northeastern Cambodia: For decades, Nov Lun and his fellow fishermen harvested the rich bounty of the Sesan River in northeastern Cambodia. Then, three years ago, a giant hydroelectric power plant opened upstream from his village of Kumpun. Irregular water releases from […]
Read more »US, China Dueling For Power On The Mekong
September 6th, 2021
Via The Asia Times, a report on how the countries sharing the Lancang-Mekong River are entering a new era of hydropolitics, involving programs on both economic and water resource development, and hydro-diplomacy via China’s dam-engineered control of the headwaters of the Mekong: When China announced in early August a new US$6 million for new development […]
Read more »Belt and Road Dam In Cambodia Branded A ‘Disaster’ For Local Communities
August 10th, 2021
Courtesy of The Financial Times, an article on how Chinese-funded projects threaten a food crisis in the Mekong river delta: A Chinese-financed dam in Cambodia, part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, has been a human rights “disaster” for indigenous and ethnic minority communities, according to a report published on Tuesday. Human Rights Watch claims the […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China Belatedly Notifies Mekong Nations of River Disruption
January 9th, 2021
Via The Diplomat, an article on China’s belated notification to other Mekong nations of a river disruption: Earlier this week, I wrote about the sudden drop in water levels along the Mekong River in northern Thailand, and their likely link to the filling of a dam reservoir upstream in China. The fall first became apparent on January 4, […]
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