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…

Cambodia Retains High Level Of Biodiversity

The Phnom Penh Post — Cambodia is still recognised as a global leader in biodiversity with 6,149 species living in Cambodia on record to date, Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra said on November 19. “The number of species may even increase over time because new examples of Cambodia’s incredible degree of biodiversity may be discovered,” he said on his Facebook Read More…

Mekong Delta Urgently Needs Climate Change Data: Conference

Vietnam Plus — A conference was held in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on November 18 to raise local young people’s awareness of the importance of a database for environmental protection and climate change response. It was part of a project to build a communication programme to heighten awareness of the sustainable and climate-resilient development of the Mekong Delta in alignment Read More…

Absence Of Seasonal Flooding Washes Away Mekong Delta Livelihood

VN Express — For several years, the annual flooding that has nourished the delta for centuries has been late, deficient or absent, and experts have blamed it on climate change and the construction of a series of upstream dams. Early this month, Thang, 48, and his wife, Khen, residents of Hong Ngu District in Dong Thap Province, took their boat and went to collect their catch from fixed-net Read More…