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The Mekong Dam Monitor Tracks a River Under Pressure
July 24th, 2025
Via New Security Beat, a report on how a new Mekong dam monitor can track a river under pressure: The Mekong River’s seasonal floods nurture the world’s most productive inland fishery and irrigate rice paddies that feed millions. Approximately 70 million people live in the lower Mekong Basin, and 75% of them depend on fishing and […]
Read more »Damming the River by Feeling the Stones: China’s Mekong Hydropower Strategy
July 24th, 2025
Via New Security Beat, commentary on China’s Mekong River strategy: For decades, China has been the dominant force in hydropower development across the Mekong subregion, financing, and constructing massive dam projects that have transformed Southeast Asia’s economic and environmental landscape. Many analysts have framed this expansion as a meticulously orchestrated strategy to extend Beijing’s economic […]
Read more »Preventing Conflicts over Transboundary Dams
January 11th, 2025
Via International Water Power and Dam Construction, an article on how the planning, development, and management of dams in transboundary basins needs to be governed in an effective and cooperative manner to ensure limited negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts, and the mitigation of any potential conflict. The construction of dams within transboundary basins can lead […]
Read more »Asia’s Appetite For Sand Is Consuming Its Rivers and Seas
January 5th, 2025
Via South China Morning Post, a report on the environmental consequences of sand mining particularly across Asia where rivers are shrinking, coastlines eroding and ecosystems unravelling: Asia’s construction boom is driving a global scramble for sand, a critical resource. Last month, the Philippine coastguard discovered 13 undocumented Chinese workers aboard a dredger ship in Mariveles off the […]
Read more »Cambodia’s Giant Lake Shrinks As Climate Change, Mekong Dams Cut Fish Supply
December 14th, 2024
Via Nikkei Asia, a look at how Cambodia’s Tonle Sap communities count cost of hydropower drive clashing with food security needs: The pier of Kampong Chhnang, a fishing community north of Phnom Penh, was alive at 7 a.m. with the rhythm of knives hitting chopping boards. Dozens of women sat on the ground, slicing flesh […]
Read more »Luang Prabang Dam and Hydropower Pursuits along the Mekong: Are They Really ‘Clean Energy’ Projects?
December 3rd, 2024
Via Eco Business, a closer look at how the Mekong River ‘energy transition’ deals are backed, revealing gaps in the lending policies of banks in the Mekong subregion: From disappearing fish species to an exceptionally severe dry season, there is now clear indication that excessive damming is taking a toll on the Mekong. These impacts on the transboundary river […]
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