ព័ត៌មាន​

Cambodia and Vietnam will write a joint letter to the Lao and Thai governments urging that construction of the Xayaburi dam, in northern Laos, be halted, a spokesman for the government’s Mekong committee said yesterday. Minister of Water Resources Lim Kean Hor met with Vietnam’s Minister ...

Over 300 Buddhist monks and Cambodian residents who live along Mekong River in Kampong Cham province, about 120km from Phnom Penh, gathered in the provincial town to demand for Laos to halt the construction of Xayaburi dam. “We want the Lao government to stop the construction of Xayaburi dam because it will affect the ...

The Venerable Sann Leang, executive director of NGO Environmental More than 500 villagers held a march in eastern Cambodia Friday to protest a controversial dam project on the Mekong River in Laos they say is undergoing construction despite a pledge to halt progress while officials ...

Cambodian villagers demonstrated on Friday against a controversial Lao hydropower dam that activists say is being built in defiance of an agreement to assess its potentially damaging impact on millions of people first. About 200 villagers whose livelihoods depend on the Mekong River urged a halt ...

A study the Lao government has used to claim the Xayaburi dam would be harmless if redesigned has been criticised for not addressing concerns about the project’s effect on fish in the Lower Mekong river. Lao Vice Minister of Energy and Mines Viraponh Viravong was reported ...

Laos has postponed construction of the controversial Xayaburi dam project on the Lower Mekong River, a spokesman for its Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quoted saying on Wednesday. “No construction is going on. It’s discontinued, postponed,” Sithong Chitgnothin told Radio Free Asia in Laos. ...

The Laos government has said that all the necessary environmental assessments for the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River have been completed and that no damage will be inflicted on the fisheries in countries further downstream when built, an official at the Cambodia National Mekong Committee said yesterday. Watt Botkosal, ...

Protests over construction of the controversial Xayaburi hydro dam project in northern Laos could spread from Thailand to Cambodia as communities along the Mekong River begin to feel its negative effects, an International Rivers programme director said yesterday. About 70 Thai villagers who rely on the ...

Hydropower dams planned for the tributaries of the Mekong River, particularly the Lower Sesan 2, will have a “catastrophic” impact on fish stocks throughout the country, according to new research that calls for several planned dams to be reconsidered. Authored by an international group of ...

A government committee yesterday approved a draft sub-decree aimed at protecting the endangered Mekong River dolphin and will send it to the Council of Ministers within a few weeks. Among the provisions contained in the sub-decree is the creation of a 180-km-long conservation area stretching ...

Officials and environmentalists yesterday agreed to draw up new measures to save the endangered Mekong dolphin and find more information on why the species is disappearing. At the end of a three-day workshop in Kratie province, officials and representatives from the World Wildlife Fund signed a ...

A new government plan has set a goal for an annual 1.2 million tonnes of fish by 2019, but officials and environmentalist have said the construction of Xayaburi dam in Laos could stymie Mekong fisheries. The plan would push fish exports to 500,000 tonnes of fish ...

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) agreed yesterday to delay a decision on Laos’ proposal to build the first hydropower dam on the Lower Mekong River in order to allow Japan to conduct further environmental impact studies on the dam project. Although Cambodian officials welcomed the outcome, ...

Thailand will not object to the proposed Xayaburi hydropower dam in Laos, but Vientiane must shoulder responsibility for potential environmental damage caused by the US$3.8 billion project, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday. “Laos has the right to construct the dam as it is located inside Lao ...

While crediting his efforts to quash illegal fishing with a surge in this year’s fish stocks, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that he would extend the closure of 35 large Tonle Sap lake fishing lots until 2014. Speaking at a road paving project inauguration in ...

Environmental Group World Wildlife Fund yesterday called on the four member governments of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to shelve Laos’ proposal to build the first Lower Mekong River hydropower dam when the countries meet next week in Siem Reap province. Las has planned numerous dams ...

A mother whose family face eviction from their home at Boeung Kak lake was farewelled at a funeral on Saturday evening, hours after her body was found in the Mekong River. Chea Dara’s body was identified by family members on Saturday in Samraong Thum commune, Kien ...

After discovering that government officials had fixed a bidding process for companies interested in operating fishing lots on the Mekong River, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday annulled the results of the bidding and rescheduled it for next year. Speaking at a plenary session at the ...

Hundreds of students attending a forum yesterday on plans of regional governments to develop hydropower dams on the Mekong River expressed concern over the river’s future, and they urged the governments to abandon the projects or proceed with caution. The forum in Phnom Penh was the ...

Although floodwaters are receding, an unknown number of villages in several provinces remain accessible only by boat, and the extent of the damage has yet to be fully assessed, according to aid workers and the latest “situation update” from the United Nations Disaster Management Team. “In ...

A representative of environmental group International Rivers said yesterday that if the Laos government were to move forward with a controversial dam project, it would violate the 1995 Mekong Agreement. “Moving forward with the dam would be against international law,” said Ame Trandem, Sountheast Asia program ...

An environmental group yesterday refuted the validity of a report commissioned by Laos in September claiming that construction of its controversial Xayaburi dam would not have a significant impact on the Mekong River. The report, completed for the Lao government by Swiss engineer Poyry Energy AG, ...

More than 60 percent of nearly 50,000 evacuated families have returned home as floods recede in areas along the Mekong River and other parts of the country, said the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM). Nearly all displaced families have gone back to flood-wrecked villages in ...

Three percent of the country’s rice crops have been destroyed by flooding in provinces along the Mekong River and around the Tonle Sap lake, and another seven percent is at risk of being lost, the minister of agriculture said yesterday. New government estimates also show that ...