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The Thirsty Dragon: Amid US Criticism, China Offers Mekong Nations Access to Crucial River Data
October 23rd, 2020
Via The Diplomat, a report on China’s agreement to provide downstream nations access to crucial Mekong River data, a welcome development for downstream nations, but one that underlines China’s strategic hold over the crucial waterway: China has agreed to provide the Mekong River Commission (MRC) with year-round hydrological data, following through on a promise made by Chinese Premier […]
Read more »US Launches Mekong Partnership as Chinese Debt Trap Closes on Laos
September 16th, 2020
Via Future Directions International, a report on a different type of water politics, one which pertains to geopolitical spread of influence: The United States announced a new Mekong-US Partnership at a virtual summit hosted by Vietnam on 11 September. An initial US$153 million ($210 million) will be made available to Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos to […]
Read more »Is The Mekong Doomed?
September 6th, 2020
Via The Diplomat, a sobering report on the Mekong River: The miracle of the Mekong, where the pulsating force of the monsoon-driven river every year pushes its tributary to back up and reverse its flow into the great Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia, has again been disrupted and obstructed by dams, drought, and climate change. […]
Read more »US Official Attacks China’s ‘Manipulation’ of the Mekong
September 5th, 2020
Via The Diplomat, an article on how Southeast Asia’s mighty river is quickly becoming a new front in US-China competition: A senior American diplomat has criticized China’s string of hydropower dams on the Mekong River, becoming the latest U.S. official to raise alarm about their possible effects on countries downstream. David R. Stilwell, assistant secretary of […]
Read more »Struggling With Drought on the Mekong
September 3rd, 2020
Via The Diplomat, an article on how climate change and dams combine to push the Mekong’s water levels to record lows: Drought, climate change, and the construction of dams – on a scale that beggars belief – are threatening a river system that traverses five countries and feeds 70 million people who live hand to […]
Read more »Cambodia’s Biggest Lake Is Running Dry
August 22nd, 2020
Via National Geographic, a report on how drought and dams have pushed Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake into dangerous decline, threatening its swamp forests and the fish nurseries there that provide most of the nation’s protein: Hun Sotharith recalls when he moved to Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake to become a fisherman. It was the early 1990s, […]
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