Thailand and Myanmar at odds over Salween dams

(December 13, 2006) Signaling a potentially momentous change in its foreign policy toward Myanmar, Thailand’s new Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand has said he intends to reassess, and possibly abandon, the previous Thai government’s controversial joint-plans with Myanmar’s military junta to build five hydroelectric dams along the Salween River.

Overpopulated Beijing facing water crisis

(December 12, 2006) The authorized government portal site to China, http://www.china.org.cn reports that “the water shortage in China’s capital is set to reach crisis point in 2010, when the population is expected to top 17 million — at least three million more than its resources can feed.” The article goes on to say that “the ceiling on Beijing’s population, set by the central government in 2004, is 18 million in 2020….One approach to cap the city’s population is [sic] relocate some people.”