Environment and land

The number of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins found in Myanmar this year has increased to 79, the highest in a decade, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society of Myanmar (WCS). The numbers include seven calves aged three months or younger. The Irrawaddy dolphins can also be found ...

A chemical leak at a construction site on part of the Lao-China Railway has caused the deaths of fish and contaminated sections of the Nam Lik River in Kasy District, Vientiane Province. Authorities in Kasy District, Vientiane Province, have urged residents to refrain from eating fish ...

Ethnic wars, security concerns and official foot-dragging have all conspired to stall China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plan to build a high-speed railroad from its southwest down through Myanmar’s volatile northern regions to the Indian Ocean.     But Beijing has an emerging alternate plan: Develop ...

The construction of more ports along the Mekong River has been planned with an aim to improve the transport of agricultural products along the river. Sun Chanthol, Senior Minister and Minister of Public Works and Transport, said that two more ports would be constructed – one ...

Can Tho is the latest to fall to the relentless flow of seawater into Mekong Delta rivers. The city is nearly 100 kilometer from the sea. A saline meter used at Cai Cui port in Cai Rang District on Wednesday read 3,500 parts per thousand (ppt), ...

Parched fields, cracked earth and dry water channels are nothing unusual in the Mekong Delta, which is facing yet another drought this year. Hai Phuong wakes up at 4:30 a.m. every day and makes his way to the field.  The 45-year-old in Tran Hoi Commune, Tran Van ...

Dam operations upstream combined with a drought have caused a severe drop in water levels along the Mekong River, on which tens of millions of people rely for their livelihoods through fishing or farming, say Thais who live by the banks of the great waterway. BenarNews ...

Famers in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Đồng Tháp have switched to growing Thái (Thai) jackfruit on around 1,000ha from other fruits and low-yield rice since it fetches a higher income. It includes 200ha in Châu Thành District and 100ha in Tháp Mười District. Nguyễn ...

The water is so clear on the Mekong River in northeastern Thailand that the sunlight pierces through to the riverbed, transforming the waterway into a glinting, empty aquarium. It is beautiful but it means death. At this time of year in Thailand, this stretch of the ...

Vietnam and three Mekong neighbors will join hands to assess plastic waste leakage into the river system in a bid to fight plastic pollution in the region. Fifty government officials and university researchers from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam gathered to discuss assessment methodologies to study ...