(January 13, 2003) IUCN urges the Governments that share the Mekong River to fully consider the threats to biodiversity imposed by the blasting of shoals and rapids undertaken as part of the Upper Mekong Navigation Improvement Project.

(January 7, 2003) Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have agreed to fully tap hydroelectric potential in their seven border provinces at a recent seminar in Hanoi.

(December 23, 2002) Thai villagers held a traditional rice-harvest ceremony yesterday as part of their protest against a potash mine proposed by Canadian mining company Asia Pacific Resources Ltd.

(December 22, 2002) Unless China wants to appear heavy-handed, it should reconsider its go-it-alone approach in Mekong hydropower development plans.

(December 19, 2002) Human rights abuses ‘likely to increase.’

(December 18, 2002) We have learned that the plans to build dams on the Salween River in Shan State and on the Thai-Burma border have been revived by the Thai company MDX, and an MOU will be signed to build the Ta Sang Dam in Shan State on December 20, 2002. EGAT is also now pushing the Thai government to discuss the building of two dams on the Thai-Burma border with the Burmese government.

(December 13, 2002) MDX Plc, a local major construction group, is set to sign a memorandum of understanding with Rangoon for the construction of a 3,600-megawatt hydro-power dam on the Salween River.

(December 2, 2002) The Ministry of Industry (MoI) is seeking government approval to build the 200-MW Dak My 4 hydroelectric plant near the Dak My River in Vietnamese central Quang Nam province, at a cost of VND3,500 billion
($229 million). The time to kick off construction was not announced.

(November 30, 2002) The loss of lives and uncompensated damage to property, riverside crops, and fish catches, is the tragic outcome of a deliberate and economically flawed hydro development strategy.

(November 20, 2002) Pressure for dams has pitched poor ethnic minorities against industrial centres.