VoA — The Mekong River is Southeast Asia’s longest, passing through China, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam. But dams have changed the path of the river system. Now there are droughts during the rainy season and high water when it should be dry. That has affected the lives of people, including those in northeastern Thailand where locals depend on the river for food and Read More…

AsiaNews.it — The ongoing sand extraction on the canals of the Mekong Delta is causing serious loss of a lot of agricultural land. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Mekong Delta loses about 300 hectares of land every year due to the erosion of the river banks and the coast. Thus, in ten years the Mekong Delta has lost 3,000 hectares of land. The Read More…

Vietnam Plus — Vice Director of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Department of Water Resources Management, Nguyen Thi Thu Linh, has called for practical action to sustainably protect and tap into water resources. In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of World Water Day on March 22, with the theme “Valuing Water”, Linh said Vietnam has Read More…

Radio Free Asia — Villagers living near the site of a planned large-scale Mekong River dam near the former royal capital of Laos say they are worried because the government has already begun construction on the project before its international approval process is complete, they told RFA. The 1,460 megawatt, U.S. $3 billion Luang Prabang dam will displace 581 families or 2,285 people and Read More…

Khmer Times — NGO Wonders of the Mekong has released preliminary data on the movement patterns of wild Mekong catfish after 20 fish were surgically implanted with acoustic tags and released into the Mekong River in 2006. The Mekong River has the world’s third most diverse fish population in the world after the Amazon and Congo River basins, Wonders of the Mekong project manager Chea Read More…