BLOG
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 […]
Read more »Cambodia Breaks Ground On Controversial China-funded Canal: Will Be Built ‘No Matter The Cost’
August 6th, 2024
Via AP News, a report on Cambodia breaking ground to build a controversial, China-funded canal to link the capital Phnom Penh to the sea despite environmental concerns and the risk of straining ties with neighboring Vietnam. The $1.7 billion, 180-kilometer Funan Techo canal will connect the country’s capital with Kep province on the country’s south […]
Read more »The Intensifying Impacts of Upstream Dams on the Mekong
July 27th, 2024
Via The Diplomat, a report on how the Mekong Delta of Vietnam stands to be most in danger in the time of accelerating and intersecting impacts from climate change and hydropower: This year marked another record-setting dry season for the Mekong basin. Mekong Environment Forum, an NGO based in Can Tho City, has assisted the […]
Read more »In a Dammed and Diked Mekong, a Push to Restore the Flow
May 8th, 2024
Via Yale e360, a look at the Mekong which – facing increasing land subsidence, saltwater intrusion, and flooding linked with development – has Vietnam committed to changing its approach to managing the Mekong Delta. New initiatives call for retrofitting dikes and dams to restore flood regimes, using nature as a guide. We depart from Can […]
Read more »Citizens Mobilizing Against Thai Hydropower
April 15th, 2024
Via the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a report on how citizens are using information to battle against hydropower projects on the Mekong: To counter the marginalization of community input in hydropower project planning, civil society organizations (CSOs) share information on the ecological and economic effects of dams during the Environmental Impact Assessment’s advised “policy window” […]
Read more »China Changes Tack on Water Politics
March 21st, 2024
Courtesy of The Diplomat, a report on how – long a source of tension with its neighbors – China’s transboundary rivers are opening opportunities for regional cooperation: Sixteen major rivers originate in China that supply fresh water to nearly 3 billion people in 14 Asian countries – more than a third of the world’s population. As “Asia’s […]
Read more »