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The Thirsty Dragon: China Flexes Its Control On The Mekong
January 11th, 2018
Via The Asia Times, an article on how the recent Mekong-Lancang Cooperation summit did more to facilitate Beijing’s economic penetration than address the waterway’s many problems: Was it truly worth Chinese Premier Li Keqiang traveling all the way to Phnom Penh for the second Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) summit? As the MLC leaders’ meeting closed on Wednesday, […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China’s Mekong Plans Threaten Disaster for Countries Downstream
September 27th, 2017
Via Foreign Policy, a report on how Beijing is building hydroelectric dams and dredging to allow bigger boats as worries of environmental devastation grow: Thirty million people depend for a living on the Mekong, the great Asian river that runs through Southeast Asia from its origins in the snowfields of Tibet to its end in […]
Read more »Big Hydropower Dams Disrupt Mekong River’s Free Flow
August 10th, 2017
Courtesy of Circle of Blue, a look at how plans by Laos to build big hydropower dams on the Mekong River are seen by many villagers, the region’s environmental organizations, and some officials in neighboring countries as making a mockery of the river’s natural beauty and its central value as a source of fish, irrigation, […]
Read more »Environmental Concerns Unlikely To Threaten Chinese Plans To Dredge Thai Mekong
May 25th, 2017
Via Future Directions International, an article on China’s plan to dredge the Mekong River: China’s plan to dredge the Mekong River to open the trade route to larger cargo ships has been met with protests in Thailand. As agreed by China, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, the project aims to improve cargo access to 630 kilometres […]
Read more »Mekong Fisheries Threatened By Chinese Dams
February 13th, 2017
Via China Dialogue, a look at the impact that Chinese dams are causing on the Mekong: Large dams on the Mekong River in China’s Yunnan province have considerable impacts on downstream river flows. This is shown by new research by myself and colleagues at Aalto University in Finland, and published recently in the Journal of Hydropower. The Mekong […]
Read more »Hydropower In The Mekong: An Opportunity To Chart A New Course?
December 5th, 2016
Via Third Pole.net, a look at the potential for Laos to rethink its aggressive hydropower plans as new markets and technologies create an opportunity to change course: A report published in September by the Stimson Center, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, challenges prevailing notions about the future of hydropower in the Mekong subregion, an area including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, […]
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