Facebook joins flood, drought alert efforts on Mekong River
Facebook and the Mekong River Commission (MRC) launched a collaboration initiative Monday to provide early flood alert and drought monitoring information to Mekong nations. The MRC stated it has installed 22 hydrological stations along the main channel in the lower Mekong River basin to monitor and ...
Nguyen Quy
Call for proposal
Description: The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN) are currently accepting Letters of Inquiry (LoIs) from non-governmental organisations, community groups, Indigenous People’s organisations, women’s groups, private companies and other civil society organisations for projects that address the conservation of biodiversity in ...
Gist of Tokyo strategy 2018 adopted by Japan, Mekong countries
The following is the gist of the Tokyo Strategy 2018 for Mekong-Japan Cooperation adopted at a meeting of the leaders of Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam on Tuesday. Japanese and Mekong leaders: — elevate Japan-Mekong cooperation to “strategic partnership.” — identify “vibrant and effective” connectivity, people-centered ...
China's dams exacerbated extreme drought in lower Mekong: Study
Southeast Asian countries would have likely experienced a much less severe drought last year if it were not for China’s dams, a new study says, prompting a pushback from the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission (MRC). The 4,000-km (2,485-mile) Mekong is one of the world’s longest rivers – ...
Leonie Kijewski
Open Development Mekong updates profile of Early Warning System
The Early Warning System is a global initiative that ensures local communities, and the organizations that support them, have verified information about proposed bank-funded projects likely to cause human and environmental rights abuses and provides clear strategies for advocacy before the project financing is approved ...
Chinese dams a threat to Lower Mekong River
One of the main issues facing nations in the Mekong River Commission, including Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, is that China has refused to share information about the operations of its hydropower dams. As a result, the MRC countries are cautious about using their limited ...
Floating guard post to protect Irawaddy dolphins in Mekong
The Kratie provincial authority in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Cambodia) is preparing to build a guard post in the Anlong Kampi area of the Mekong River in Chitr Borei district’s Sambok commune to watch for illegal fishing activities that may affect ...
Nov Sivutha
Google helps tackle plastic pollution in the Mekong River, aided by machine learning
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has partnered with Google to fight plastic pollution in the Mekong River, leveraging citizen science and machine learning to understand the magnitude of the problem impacting the longest river in Southeast Asia. Aided by technical advisory support from Google, the CounterMEASURE ...
James Henderson (Channel Asia)
Four-nation joint patrol on Mekong River starts
The 89th Mekong River joint patrol led by China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand was launched Tuesday in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. In a bid to safeguard the security and stability along the Mekong River, the four countries will carry out joint patrols, visits, inspections and safety ...
Huaxia
China notifies Mekong River neighbours it is holding back waters
China has notified downstream neighbours it is holding back the Mekong River flow at a hydropower dam on the waterway’s upper reaches for 20 days, as part of a new data-sharing pact, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and Thailand said on Wednesday. The statements came a ...
Panu Wongcha-um, Kay Johnson
Cambodia and China set to sign Mekong-Lancang Fund agreement
Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn and Wang Wentian, Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia are scheduled to sign the 7.2-million agreement on the cooperation projects of the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Special Fund at the ministry today, according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry statement. The statement said that under the ...
Khann Chanvirak
The guardians of Siamese rosewood
“We bury a GPS tracker in the wood. We call them rabbits,” says Cheewapap Cheewatham, director of Thailand’s Forest Protection and Fire Control Bureau, part of the forestry department. He tells China Dialogue that they used to just impound as evidence cut rosewood they found ...
Ryn Jirenuwat, Tyler Roney
Activists alarmed after PM promotes Don Sahong
As construction on the Don Sahong dam near the Cambodia-Laos border passes its halfway point, activists and locals are increasingly concerned over the disappearance of Irawaddy dolphins and incidences of illness they suspect are caused by the muddied water. “The waters downstream in Cambodia have ...
13.5 million Vietnamese suffer from common mental disorders
Around 15 per cent of Việt Nam’s population – approximately 13.5 million people – suffer from 10 of the more common mental disorders, reveal statistics released on November 29. Around 2.8 per cent of Vietnamese live with depression, 2.6 per cent suffer from anxiety disorder, ...
Locust swarm from China ravages northern Vietnam bamboo forests, corn fields
A locust swarm from China has been destroying bamboo forests and corn fields in Dien Bien Province in northern Vietnam since last week. The yellow-spined bamboo locust (Ceracris kiangsu) swarm, which has an estimated 100-400 individuals per square meter, devoured bamboo leaves in 20 ha of ...
Tat Dinh
Data journalism training in ASEAN countries: the 12 winning projects
CFI has revealed the 12 winning projects, 7 of which from the Lower Mekong Countries, for their competition to receive #DataJournalism training in #ASEAN countries. Congratulations!Below are the winning organisations:** Cambodia **Cambodian Center for Independent Media Thmey Thmey News** Thailand **Prachatham ประชาธรรม SEAPA – Southeast Asian Press ...
Open Development Mekong publishes a story on Foreign Investment in the Lower Mekong Region
Open Development Mekong explores the dynamics of Foreign Investment in the Lower Mekong Region. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is a key driver of economic growth in the Lower Mekong Countries (LMCs) — Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Attracting significant global interest, the region saw ...
Vietnam Utility Dares Mekong Devastation
Inertia and the inherent tone-deafness of an authoritarian regime have set Vietnam on a course toward economic and political disaster. It is not too late, however, for the ruling party’s top leaders, the Politburo, to disavow support for state-owned PetroVietnam’s plans to build a huge ...
David Brown
Special Economic Zones in Context
Since the establishment of the Shenzhen SEZ in China during the 1980s, Special Economic Zones (SEZs) as a development model have grown in popularity in Asia, alongside official development aid. SEZs have been promoted as being a resilient form of economic development, with the potential ...
