Radio Free Asia — A court in Thailand has refused to hear an appeal on a case concerning a large-scale Mekong River mainstream dam in Laos, a blow to Thai civic groups concerned about the dam’s potential transboundary environmental impact. Laos’ Pak Beng dam project is the northernmost in a proposed cascade of 11 dams on the Mekong River’s main stream, part of Vientiane’s Read More…

Khmer Times — The Mekong River Commission (MRC) forecasted Monday that the current dry season would be wetter than the last two seasons while the wet season would start earlier this year. “This year’s dry season will be wetter than in 2019 and 2020, with the rainy season likely to begin in early May. Normally, the monsoon rains begin in late May and end in October,” the MRC said in Read More…

VN Express — Water levels in some sections of the Mekong River have only increased slightly in the last seven days though China has claimed consistent excess outflow from the Jinghong dam. The outflow at Jinghong hydrological station rose from 786 cubic meters per second on February 15 to 1,020 cu.m per second after a week, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said in a press release on Read More…

Reuters — The inter-governmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Monday that levels on the vital waterway have “slightly” increased and it would look into why its outflow data from Chinese dams upstream differed from data later given by Beijing. Whether or not China’s 11 dams are harming downstream nations dependant on the 4,350 km (2,700 mile) river has become a geopolitical Read More…

The Diplomat — Water levels in the Mekong River have fallen to “worrying” levels since the start of this year, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said last week, as the region heads into a third straight year of below average rainfall. In a statement on February 12, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said that drought conditions, flow changes upstream, hydropower operations in the Mekong Read More…

Vietnam Plus — A draft master plan for the Mekong Delta for 2021-2030 and vision to 2050, recently released to collect public feedback, views climate change as not only a challenge but also an opportunity for local development. Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said the draft features three guiding viewpoints, with the first respecting the ecosystem’s natural Read More…

Khmer Times — The Mekong population of the rare River Tern has doubled in the past five years, raising hope for the species’ conservation, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said yesterday. According to the WWF statement, its research team has so far encountered 68 River Terns during their initial bird surveys which were conducted earlier this month, along the Mekong landscape between Read More…

Reuters — Water levels in the Mekong River have fallen to a “worrying level” in part due to outflow restrictions from Chinese hydropower dams upstream, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Friday, calling on Beijing to share all of its water data. The vital waterway has turned blue along the Thai-Laos border, from its usual murky brown colour - signaling shallow water and low Read More…

Vietnam Plus — It is essential to promote sustainable development of the Mekong Delta in the direction of effectively adapting to climate change, given the region’s strategic position in national socio-economic development and security defence, experts have said.Covering a total area of 3.94 million hectares across 13 provinces and city, the region is Vietnam’s largest agricultural Read More…

Radio Free Asia — Water levels on a stretch of the Mekong River along the border of Thailand and Laos, already low because of equipment testing at China’s upriver Jinghong Dam, have failed to rise again, raising concerns in communities living downstream, sources say. Chinese authorities at the end of December had announced that discharges of water from Yunnan province’s Jinghong Dam Read More…