from Mouth to Source
March 6, 2012 8:18 am

Mekong dam plans revived

By: APINYA WIPATAYOTIN AND ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT | Bangkok Post | 27/03/2009 Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti has revived plans for hydro-power dams on the Mekong river worth over 400 billion baht. Thailand will suffer if it fails to develop the dams as the river offers great benefits, the minister said yesterday during activities [...]

100 Years on, Tracing an Engineer’s Legacy

A Reporter’s Journey By THOMAS FULLER | The New York Times | March 29, 2009 The spring water that drips from massive slabs of rock high above the floodplains of the Mekong River is a rarity in Asia today, so remote and pristine that you don’t hesitate to cup your hands and gulp it down. [...]

Rattan program protects Greater Mekong forests, boosts local economies

WWF | 23 Mar 2009 A new sustainable rattan program recently launched by WWF will help save the remaining forests of the Greater Mekong Region – while benefiting communities and pumping up local economies. Rattan is widely used for food, furniture and other products and traded extensively across the region, in the European Union and [...]

Farmer keeps collection of ancient statues

March 19th, 2009 | www.southeastasianarchaeology.com A farmer in Vietnam is featured for his collection of ancient sculpture, about a hundred in total, many of which are said to be from the Oc Eo area in the Mekong River Delta. Oc Eo was a major port of the Funan kingdom, centred in South Vietnam from the [...]

The Death of Fish Sticks: Will Success Kill the Pangasius?

By Barbara Hardinghaus | Der Spiegel The Pangasius, or striped catfish, began taking the European fish market by storm a few years ago. It satisfied a voracious appetite for inexpensive white fish. But its success may become its downfall. Manuela Wendland looks through her round glasses at the many different kinds of fish in the [...]

Vietnam to have climate change script in late March

Khoi Nguyen | VietNamNet Bridge | 17/03/2009 VietNamNet Bridge – The Institute for Hydrometeorology and Environment will finalize the “script” on climate change later this March, said the institute’s director, Dr. Tran Thuc, at a workshop on climate change in Hanoi on March 16. Dr. Thuc said the institute will submit the script to the [...]

Mekong river hydroelectric dam threatens livelihoods and endangered species in landlocked Laos

Dam would block fish migrations that feed millions of people in region and threaten Irrawaddy dolphins and giant catfish Tom Fawthrop in Laos | The Guardian - London | 13th March 2009 With its picturesque waterfalls, tranquil waterways and a colony of the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins, the pristine beauty of the Mekong river flowing [...]

Save the Mekong! - announcing a new coalition of NGOs

CEPA, FACT, TERRA, International Rivers, Oxfam, SEARIN, Mekong Watch, Probe International, FIVAS, Earthrights International, and others, have now joined forces to ‘Save the Mekong’. This information from the coalition website at www.savethemekong.org … The Mekong River is under threat. The governments of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand are planning eleven big hydropower dams on the Mekong [...]

Hydropower Plan in the source of Mekong River, Zaqu in Tibet

From www.xizang.gov.cn Zaqu River is located in the Chamdo area of Tibet. It is the eastern river source of the Mekong. The dams are planned in the Tibetan section of the Zaqu. The total installed capacity of the five planned dams is 510 MW. The five-dam cascade now includes Dongzhong, Guoduo, Xiangda, Ruyi and Lichang. [...]

Seawater encroaches 50 km in land

Saturday 28th February 2009. The Mekong delta is facing the most severe drought and salinity in many decades. Seawater in the Mekong Delta has penetrated deep into the mainland, according to the Southern Irrigation Science Institute. Seawater has penetrated upstream in various areas: 37 km from the mouth of the Cua Dai estuary, Loc Thuan [...]