Laos has dismissed fears that its next hydropower dam on the Mekong River would devastate downstream communities after neighboring countries and rights groups raised their doubts at a regional forum in the capital last week. The tiny landlocked country announced its intentions to go ahead with the 1,460 MW Luang Prabang dam in July, making it the fifth of nine dams it has planned for the waterway to move fo ...

 The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a 60 million dollar financing package with Nepal Water and Energy Development Company (NWEDC) to help build and operate a 216-megawatt run-of-the-river hydropower plant on the Trishuli River near the capital Kathmandu. The project is one of the largest private sector investments in Nepal to date. It will enhance the country's energy security by helping to utilise ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $60 million loan to construct hydropower plants (HPPs) capable of adding 25 megawatts (MW) capacity, which will help the Government of Uzbekistan achieve its goal of diversifying the country’s energy mix through greater use of clean energy sources and lowering carbon emissions, ADB’s Country Office in Uzbekistan said. “ADB’s assistance to help build HPPs will ...

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 ...