For those who had believed that Laos would stick to its pledge to shelve construction of the controversial Xayaburi dam, November 7 was a black day. It was on that day that Laos broke ground on the US$3.8-billion project despite vehement objections from environmental groups and its neighbors who said the 810-meter (2,600ft) dam would unleash massive ecological changes on a river that feeds around 60 million people.
The controversy over the flawed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) done for the Song Tranh Dam, now blamed for causing many tremors and quakes in the central province of Quang Nam since last November, has exposed major problems in the assessment and approval process of such projects.
With hydropower running amok in this country, local critics of neighboring dam projects are throwing stones in a glass house. A view of the Cat Tien National Park, where two planned hydropower projects, if built, would encroach on around 140…
As ASEAN leaders meet for the 18th ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Save the Mekong coalition calls on ASEAN leaders to act immediately to cancel the Xayaburi Dam in Lao PDR.
Vietnamese officials are criticizing the Lao government’s controversial plan to build a dam on the Mekong River. Analysts say opposition from Vietnam and other lower Mekong countries could force Laos to scale back its hydropower ambitions. The $3.5 billion Xayaburi…
Chinese dams threaten one of the world’s most biodiverse rivers, critics say. It’s not just environmentalists who are worried.
The roaring currents of the Mekong have long enchanted travellers, inspired explorers and sustained about 65 million people living off the world's largest freshwater fisheries. But environmentalists warn that the "Amazon of Asia" - the river with the second-richest biodiversity in the world - is under dire threat from hydropower dams, including the latest to be proposed: the Xayaburi dam in Laos.
HA NOI — Economic development on the Mekong River is short-sighted and unsustainable, environmentalists heard at a meeting in Ha Noi yesterday. The meeting, entitled Mekong: Energy – Environment – Livelihood Security, was co-organised by PanNature, a Ha Noi-based non-profit…