The operation of dams along the Mekong River is exacerbating conditions in a particularly dry year and choking off a lifeline for Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Meteorologists in Thailand forecast that 2019 will turn out to be the driest in at least a decade. In the Lower Mekong countries of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, many are also pointing their fingers north to China and Laos for "switchin ...

Executive Committee of the National Economic Council has approved the revision in cost of land acquisition and built up property of Dasu Hydropower Project. The meeting of the ECNEC was held in Islamabad on Monday with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh presided in the chair. The chair also directed that the Ministry of Law may be requested to give its opinion in a week's time ...

When the next round of Asian summitry kicks off later this month in Bangkok, one of the key areas that will be in the spotlight within U.S. policy will be the Washington’s approach to the Mekong subregion – a shorthand for the area in mainland Southeast Asia through which the Mekong River, one of the world’s longest and largest rivers, runs. While U.S. interest in the Mekong has been longstanding, the subre ...

Technological innovations and favourable government policies are among the four trends expected to drive Southeast Asia’s transition to renewable energy in the coming years.  A report published by global auditing firm KPMG on Tuesday titled ‘The Renewable Energy Transition’ noted that while there are still 70 million ASEAN citizens without access to reliable electricity, the potential for renewable ene ...

International technology group ANDRITZ has signed a contract with the Indian state utility company KARNATAKA POWER CORPORATION LTD. to refurbish and renovate the Shivasamudram hydropower plant located in the southern state of Karnataka. Shivasamudram is one of Asia’s oldest hydropower plants and was built in 1902. The ANDRITZ scope of delivery includes the supply of equipment for the turbines and auxiliarie ...

A critically endangered species of orangutan which lives in one forest in Indonesia is in danger of rapid extinction after a court ruled construction of a new hydro-electric dam can go ahead, despite a legal challenge by environmental groups. The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) was discovered by scientists in 2017, and just 800 individuals are believed to exist, making it the rarest great ape speci ...

InfraCo Asia Development Pte. Ltd (InfraCo Asia), a company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), is hoping to open up future private sector investment in small hydropower projects in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Province of Pakistan following the signing of an agreement to develop four new hydropower schemes in the region. InfraCo Asia has entered into the Joint Investment and Development ...

THE DEBATE over Laos’ strategy to become the “Battery of Asia” continues months after the deadly disaster at the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam, even as the Lao government keeps building more dams. Despite the previous government’s decision to suspend new dam projects and academics’ concerns over the transboundary impacts of dams on the environment and the wellbeing of people in the Mekong River Basin, La ...

After three blasts on Thursday at Nepal's under-construction hydropower project, which is being developed with the assistance of India, workers at the site have expressed fears on continuing work. The explosions on Thursday night by improvised devices at the Arun -3 hydropower project in the Sankhuwasabha district damaged a boomer used for the construction of the tunnel of the project being built. Prime Min ...

By the end of 2018, China's installed capacity for renewable energy reached 728,000 megawatts (MW), up 12 per cent on a year-on-year basis. It took up 38.3 per cent of the total installed capacity, growing 1.7 percentage points year on year, demonstrating that the alternative role of renewable energy has become increasingly important. The data were released on Monday (Jan 28) during a media briefing held by ...