Hydropower dams cool rivers in the Mekong River basin, satellites show

UW News – Hydropower dams, which use flowing water to turn a series of turbines to generate electricity, provide a source of energy that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels. But they also disrupt the flow of rivers, and impact the fish and people that live there. Scientists have been monitoring many environmental effects of dams, including how they affect a river’s temperature — and could Read More…

Thailand Touted for Rare Move to Drop Chinese Plan for Mekong River

VOA – Rights groups and researchers have welcomed Thailand's decision to cancel a Beijing-backed project to dredge and blow open a shallow and rocky stretch of the Mekong River along the Thai-Lao border. The move is a rare victory for groups and communities fighting to save Southeast Asia's most important river from overdevelopment. Beijing's plan — endorsed by Laos, Myanmar and Read More…

Positive Environmental Trends in Asia Worth Noting

Radio Free Asia – When it came to Asia’s natural environment during the year just past, this commentator tended to emphasize negative trends. Rising sea levels threatening coastlines in the Mekong Delta, for example, and scientists’ predictions that Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City will be partly underwater by 2050. In the meantime, recent developments have been less than Read More…

Southeast Asia’s most critical river is entering uncharted waters

National Geographic – For months now, a single, rare Irrawaddy river dolphin, apparently entangled in a fishing net and disoriented, has been spotted in Southeast Asia’s struggling Mekong River, far from its normal habitat in northern Cambodia. Conservationists are scrambling to come up with a plan to help the critically endangered animal before it’s too late, but time is running Read More…

NASA Satellite Images Show Mekong River Change From Brown To Green

International Business Times – NASA and the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Landsat 8 satellite captured images of the Mekong river before and after it turned from its signature brown to an unusual aquamarine color. According to authorities, it is possible for the green color to persist until the flood season. The Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 captured images of the Read More…

Young scientist behind more than 50 internationally-published…

Viet Nam News – Born to a farming family in the Mekong Delta’s Tiền Giang Province, a young scientist was determined to pursue his passion for aquaculture. Trần Ngọc Tuấn won the 2019 Golden Globe Awards for his research on fishery biotech. The awards, which are given out annually by the Việt Nam Youth Union and Ministry of Science and Technology, aim to discover new Read More…

Lao dam impact on dolphin migration highlighted

Khmer Times – Sub-national officials and communities in the province are concerned about the impact of Laos’ Don Sahong hydropower dam on the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin population in the downstream Mekong River. According to Reuters, the dam began operations and connected its power grid to the Kingdom earlier this month to curb electricity outages. On Wednesday provincial Read More…

The Mekong Delta, where life revolves around rivers

The Canberra Times – It's early on a Saturday morning and the sun is only just starting to rise when I wake in my room beside the Hua River, in the Mekong Delta. But in this region of southwestern Vietnam, this is no time for a lazy sleep-in. I need to be on a boat to the area's largest floating market by 7am, or risk missing the peak of trading activity and having fresh local Read More…

‘No fish’: How dams and climate change are choking Asia’s great…

Los Angeles Times – For more than half a century, January meant prime fishing season for Pang Bin. He took his wooden boat out into Cambodia’s largest lake, his catches and their sales sustaining his family for much of the year. This month, the 75-year-old decided to call it quits, but not because of age or any health concerns. “No fish,” he shrugged. “Just very, very poor. Read More…

Green algae, blue water add to fears over health of Southeast…

Successful Farming – When the normally murky brown Mekong River turned a brilliant blue late last year, villagers in northeastern Thailand were surprised. Then, this week, unusually large patches of green algae appeared, clogging up nets and making it almost impossible to fish. Both the Mekong's strange colour and the algae have heightened worries about the health of the river that Read More…