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…

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…

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…

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…

Radio Free Asia — A gold mine run by a Chinese company in southern Laos is releasing waste into a river in Sekong province, killing fish and fouling water used by villagers for drinking and bathing, Lao sources say. The Lao Kaleum Gold Mining Project began operations last year and has polluted local water sources ever since it was launched, a resident of Ateng village, one of the affected Read More…