Sixth Irrawaddy Dolphin Calf For 2021

Khmer Times — Conservationists are celebrating the discovery of a sixth Irrawaddy dolphin calf born last year in Kratie province’s Mekong river. This finding came to light following research completed by the Fisheries Administration and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The calf recorded on December 31 is the latest member of the Kampi pod in Chet Borei district’s Sambok Read More…

Lower Water Levels Drag Fisheries Yield Down For 2021

Khmer Times — Lower water levels than previous years and illegal fishing are the main factors driving the reduction in the yield of fisheries lakes and rivers this year, said officials and key insiders. Figures from the Fisheries Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture showed that the fisheries yield – freshwater fish, maritime fish, and farmed fish amounted to 856,400 tonnes, a Read More…

Gov’t Says Satellite Images Don’t Prove Sand Dredging Crisis

Khmer Times — The government responded to criticism that sand pumping in the Mekong river is more than the amount being reported and that it has increased over recent years. The reaction is to respond to an article published in Eos, a science news magazine, titled “Satellites Spy on Sand Mining in the Mekong,” that cited research using satellite imagery to track sand mining in a short Read More…

Satellites Spy On Sand Mining In The Mekong

Eos — We need sand—and not just any sand. As rivers carry sediment, grains collide, creating craggy surfaces on the tiny rocks. Those rough surfaces translate into stability when river sand, gravel, and cement are combined to make concrete, the physical foundation of our modern world. Though it’s the second-most sought-after resource next to water, sand is understudied and overused, Read More…

Lack Of Data Stalls Mekong Dam But Impact On Cambodia Quite Imminent

Khmer Times — Thailand has yet to start a stage of Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreements (PNPCA) for Lao’s newest run-of-river Sanakham Dam due to insufficient information from the Chinese project developer, the Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR) has revealed. Although MRC requires the PNPCA, there is no need for country members including Thailand, Read More…

Cambodia’s Fish Catch Numbers Don’t Add Up For Fishers

VoA — When Puth Thavy was 20, the fisherman and his siblings used to come back to their village each day with three boatloads full of fish, or about 200 kilograms. Today they can barely fill a single boat. “Our fishing is so bad, I think it has decreased more than half,” said Thavy, now 38, as he and his sister sold the day’s catch to a middleman on a floating house at the edge of Read More…

Regional Public Forum Airs Concerns About Latest Lao Dam On Mekong

Khmer Times — The Mekong River Commission says a recent public forum urged Mekong governments, developers and operators to share information and data on hydropower operations to improve managing cascades of dams on the river. In a statement release in Vientiane Wednesday, the MRC Secretariat said the forum — the first of its type — also discussed recent assessments of potential Read More…

Lancang-Mekong Countries Discuss Water Resources Cooperation

CGTN — The second Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Forum opened in Beijing on Tuesday. The six countries which the Mekong River flows through, including Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and China, where it’s known as the Lancang River, agreed to deepen their cooperation in various areas since the Lancang-Mekong cooperation mechanism was established in March Read More…

Cambodia Acts To Save Largest Lake

The Manilla Times — Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen has ordered relevant authorities to launch a large-scale crackdown on illegal land grabs around the kingdom’s largest freshwater lake — Tonle Sap — and to seize back all the encroached land. In a recorded message to the public, the prime minister also ordered the arrest of any people or officials involved in the Read More…

MRC Adopts Crucial Sustainable Hydropower Development Strategy

Khmer Times — The Mekong River Commission (MRC) Council on Thursday approved the highly anticipated Sustainable Hydropower Development Strategy (SHDS 2021) for the Lower Mekong Basin, one of the key deliverables of the previous Basin Development Strategy and the MRC Strategic Plan 2016–2020, to address the future sustainability of hydropower developments. Water and environment ministers Read More…