The Mekong River

A foundation for the long term cooperation and prosperity for China and ASEAN by Phạm Phan Long for Viet Ecology Foundation Lancang-Mekong River is the world’s 11th longest river running through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. In terms of bio-diversity, Lancang-Mekong is second only after the Amazon. For thousands of years, the river [...]

Op Ed from The Bangkok Post The dispute over whether to build the first hydro-electric dam on our region’s share of the Mekong River has reached an abysmal low point. Governments, businesses and bankers have broken their understanding with Lao residents and civil society. Backers of the Xayaburi dam in northern Laos were to submit [...]

Ame Trandem for International Rivers A long-brewing regional debate over whether or not to build the proposed Xayaburi Dam on the Mekong River has hit boiling point. If there were any delusional fantasies remaining that mainstream dam building could be sustainable, the Mekong River Commission’s new independent technical review of the proposed Xayaburi Dam has [...]

by Milton Osborne for The Lowy Interpreter For the past six months, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) has been seeking submissions about the proposal by Laos to build a dam on the Mekong at Xayaburi, a location some 150 kilometres downstream from Luang Prabang. Projected to be over 800 metres wide and with a height [...]

Nirmal Ghosh for The Straits Times and by way of Eco-Business.com Bangkok, March 13 - The plan by Laos to build a large dam across the Mekong River at Xayaburi is not just raising serious concerns about its potential environmental impact, but also creating some tension between Laos and Vietnam. And for the first time, [...]

Piyaporn Wongruang for The Bangkok Post Villagers fear the worst as the Xayaburi Dam project in Laos takes shape The Mekong River looks a pale imitation of the mighty waterway it once was. The water flows sluggishly in a channel which has shrunken to only a few metres wide in some parts of Loei province. [...]

Piyaporn Wongruang for The Bangkok Post As construction of the Xayaburi Dam project is set to begin, concerns over its potential environmental, human toll and whether the energy it provides is even needed, remain unsettled. Construction on the US$3.5 billion (107 billion baht) Xayaburi Dam along the Lower Mekong is set to begin, pitting Southeast [...]

Summer Walker for The Phnom Penh Post The Cambodian National Mekong Commission met with local government officials and NGO representatives yesterday in Kratie province at Cambodia’s first consultative meeting regarding the Xayaburi dam planned for Northern Laos. Peou Vuthyrak, national environmental program coordinator for CNMC, said the meeting was organised so local-level representatives could address [...]

A condensed English version from www.vietecology.org by NGO THE VINH, M.D. PM HUN SEN AND MEKONG DAMS After the Ayeyawady-Chao Praya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) Summit on 11/17/2010 in Phnom Penh, Prime Minister Hun Sen again dismissed all concerns about the impacts of the hydroelectric dams located upstream the Mekong. He asserted that the cycle [...]

LAURA HODGES for The Phnom Penh Post EIGHT intrepid travellers are halfway through their journey paddling down the Mekong River from the Laos border to Phnom Penh, hoping to reach the capital before next weekend’s water festival. Arriving in Kratie last week, the group of American journalists and photographers stopped to update their blog at [...]