VnExpress
First water level monitoring station opens atop lower Mekong basin
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) has unveiled the Xieng Kok water level monitoring station in Laos that’s expected to reduce downstream vulnerability to unexpected flows. The station sits on Laos’s northern border with Myanmar. The commission handed the station over the Laos government to operate ...
Viet Anh
Quang Nam proposes removing protective forests for construction
The central province of Quang Nam is proposing to remove 1,600 hectares of protective forests to make room for construction.Le Tri Thanh, chairman of Quang Nam, said the area of protective forests in the east of the province spans over 3,600 hectares. Of this, 2,875 ...
Dac Thanh
Vietnam's air quality improves but has not met WHO standard
Air quality in Vietnam improved in 2021 but still failed to meet the World Health Organization’s annual average PM2.5 concentration guidelines.The decline in the annual average PM2.5 concentration continued in 2021, falling to 24.7 μg/m3 after peaking in 2019 at 34.1, the World Air Quality ...
Viet Anh
Mekong riparian nations plan measures against changing water flows
Six riparian countries are expected to identify adaptation measures relating to the Mekong River’s flow regime by the end of 2022, according to the Mekong River Commission (MRC).Anoulak Kittikhoun, the new MRC Secretariat Chief Executive Officer (CEO), told VnExpress International in Hanoi last week that the ...
Viet Anh
Upstream Mekong dams worsened wet season drought: report
Upstream dams severely restricted water flow between 2019 and 2021 during the wet season, exacerbating drought conditions created by the lack of rainfall, a new report says.Stimson Center has operated the Mekong Dam Monitor (MDM) since late 2020. MDM’s natural flow models show that wet season ...
Viet Anh
'Buying' Mekong water from China a farfetched scheme
Several researchers have reacted with skepticism and criticism to American experts’ suggestions of Mekong downstream countries paying China for water to avoid drought. Some said it was not just impractical but also something that would set a “bad precedent.”In recent years, MRC has repeatedly asked ...
Viet Anh
Central Highlands forestry institute loses 2,000 hectares of forest land
The Vietnam Academy of Forest Sciences has lost more than 2,000 hectares of forest land in the Central Highlands region over a period of 18 years.In 2003, the branch of Vietnam Academy of Forest Sciences for the south-central and Central Highlands regions was assigned to ...
Tran Hoa
Stimulus package efficacy depends on execution: analysts
The stimulus package of VND350 trillion ($15.4 billion) is timely and well planned but how it is executed will determine the pace of recovery, experts say. The stimulus package was approved earlier in January at an extraordinary session of the National Assembly held to discuss ...
Dat Nguyen, Ha Mai
'Too early' to treat Covid-19 as common illness: experts
The possibility of new coronavirus strains still challenges Vietnam’s medical system, making it hard to predict when Covid-19 could be designated as endemic, experts said. The Ministry of Health still lists Covid in Group A, which comprises dangerous infectious diseases with the ability to spread ...
486 ha of forest to be felled in Central Highlands for building highway
Authorities in Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands said they plan to use 486 hectares of forests for building a highway.The highway between Bao Loc town and the Lien Khuong-Prenn Highway, will run 73 km, have four lanes and cost VND11.3 trillion ($497.1 million). It ...