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For Thai Fishers Facing Dwindling Catches, A Lao Dam Looms Large
June 11th, 2022
Via Mongabay, a report on the impact that a Laos dam will have upon Thai fishing communities: Laos plans to build a $2 billion, 684-megawatt dam on the Mekong River, just 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) from the Thai border. The proposed Sanakham dam is the latest in a cascade of more than a dozen dams […]
Read more »Saving The Mekong Delta From Drowning
May 12th, 2022
Via Terra Daily, a report on the Mekong Delta: Southeast Asia’s most productive agricultural region and home to 17 million people could be mostly underwater within a lifetime. Saving the Mekong River Delta requires urgent, concerted action among countries in the region to lessen the impact of upstream dams and better manage water and sediments […]
Read more »The Mekong Delta’s Transboundary Water Problems
May 3rd, 2022
Via East Asia Forum, a report on the Mekong delta’s transboundary water problems: The Mekong River is the lifeblood of countries in the Mekong region, but the past few years have seen water flows recurringly decline and processes of saltwater intrusion accelerating in the Vietnamese Mekong delta. These transboundary hydrological challenges have detrimental effects on millions of people living […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China Is Running Out of Water and That’s Scary for Asia
January 29th, 2022
Via Bloomberg, an opinion piece looking at how – of all Bejing’s problems (demographic decline, a stifling political climate, the stalling or reversal of economic reforms) dwindling natural resources may be the most urgent: Nature and geopolitics can interact in nasty ways. The historian Geoffrey Parker has argued that changing weather patterns drove war, revolution and upheaval during a long […]
Read more »Thai Water Project Clears Major Hurdle After China Shows Interest
October 28th, 2021
Via Voice of America, an article on Thailand’s recent decision to move ahead on a controversial water diversion project: Thailand is moving forward on a controversial and long-pondered water diversion project after the plan drew interest from a major Chinese firm, a move that could give Beijing a new outpost for its sweeping Belt and […]
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 […]
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