(April 20, 2000) FOUR Mekong riparian states will today sign an historic pact to open a navigation route along the upper reaches of the 4,200-km-long Mekong River.

(April 1, 2000) The present Technical Assistance had the purpose of verifying that the Se San 3 project is a least cost development alternative, and of preparing it as a model hydropower project, to be managed commercially following internationally recommended operational, financial, environmental and social practices. … The present Technical Assistance was composed of two phases.  Phase I concerns finance and ownership issues and is the subject of a separate report.  Phase II concerns the Environmental, Social and Technical Analysis, and is the subject of this report.

(April 1, 2000) The present Technical Assistance had the purpose of verifying that the Se San 3 project is a least cost development alternative, and of preparing it as a model hydropower project, to be managed commercially following internationally recommended operational, financial, environmental and social practices. … The present Technical Assistance was composed of two phases.  Phase I concerns finance and ownership issues and is the subject of a separate report.  Phase II concerns the Environmental, Social and Technical Analysis, and is the subject of this report.

(March 28, 2000) In a move that is expected to appease Vietnam’s growing energy needs, the first trial run of the country’s second largest hydroelectric power plant went off without a hitch, officials said on Tuesday.

(March 22, 2000) The Cambodian national Mekong Committee has promised to study all those possible impacts and, in January, gave the go-ahead for a feasibility study of the proposed $700 million Sambor or "Abundance" dam project. … A Malaysian consulting company called GIG Development Ltd has been approved to launch the study.

(March 13, 2000) Activists and villagers in the Nam Phrom river basin have told the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to halt power generating operation at the Chulabhorn hydroelectric dam and make use of this controversial dam for irrigational purposes.

(March 4, 2000) At least three people drowned and hundreds of farms were sumberged in northeastern Cambodia after a dam in neighboring Vietnam was opened accidentally, reports said Saturday.

(March 1, 2000) The World Commission on Dams (WCD) last weekend reaped a rich harvest of ideas, facts and arguments to help its deliberations on large dams and their alternatives at its regional consultation for East and Southeast Asia in Haø Noäi.

(February 25, 2000) The following is the summary paper which was submitted to the regional consultation meeting of the World Commission on Dams in Vietnam but was not adopted by the WCD for the official presentation in Vietnam.

(February 25, 2000) The paper attempts to show the importance of fisheries in Cambodia. It then discusses the possible effects dams and other water regulatory works may have on them. Finally, it presents a brief overview of other fisheries management issues.

(February 22, 2000) The World Bank said yesterday it would not give its endorsement to a billion-dollar dam in Laos until the government commits itself to significant political and economic reforms, reports AFP.

(February 19, 2000) In the country’s first-ever case of nuclear waste leak, five people have been hospitalised for radiation sickness, but health and nuclear officials are still struggling to determine the ramifications of the radioactive nightmare.

(February 17, 2000) Fiona Miller explains how the implementation of the programme will multiply the environmental problems confronting people living in the Mekong Delta.

(February 17, 2000) About 300 angry people from the Forum of the Poor set fire to traditional fishing gear outside the Unctad venue yesterday in protest against the World Bank’s funding of dam construction.

(February 14, 2000) Sustainable water management in the Mekong River Basin, and protection for the environment, aquatic life, and the ecological balance of the basin is receiving an $11 million influx of funding from the Global Environment Facility. The project aims to bring the four downstream nations together for improved and sustainable basin management.