• News & article

  New dams could drown hopes of returning home for refugees

  News, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 10/07/2015

  » In mid-June, the Thai military government and its Myanmar counterpart signed a memorandum of understanding on energy, with an eye to expanding Thailand's import of electricity from Myanmar, by up to 10,000 megawatts. The initial agreement also promotes overseas investment by Thai state-owned and public companies in numerous coal and hydropower projects in Myanmar, including the Hat Gyi, Ywathit, and Mong Ton dams on the Salween River. Significantly, these projects are all situated in ethnic states, namely the Shan, Kayah, Karen, and the Tanesserim divisions, which make up some of the country's most vulnerable areas and populations.

• News & article

  Right way forward for the Mekong River

  News, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 05/03/2016

  » This week in Vientiane, the hydropower industry gather to attend the International Conference and Exhibition on Water Resources and Hydropower Development in Asia.

• News & article

  Visit is chance to rethink investments

  News, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 23/06/2016

  » This week's visit by Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's state counsellor, to Thailand appears to hold out hope for Thai state and private investors to revitalise their plans for key investments in Myanmar. Among these projects, the most prominent are the Dawei Special Economic Zone and a cascade of hydroelectric dams on the Salween River.

• News & article

  Salween dams threaten river communities

  News, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 29/09/2016

  » The Thai government's recent push to speed up its energy investment in Myanmar's Salween River contradicts its own efforts to warn Thai investors from operating overseas projects that violate human rights.

• News & article

  Investments should recognise local rights

  News, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 22/05/2017

  » A year ago, the cabinet issued a resolution recognising an obligation to protect human rights in Thai outbound investments. With Thai companies increasing their operations in neighbouring countries in sectors that carry significant risks for human rights and the environment, further action to put this important commitment into practice is now overdue.

• News & article

  Dam projects require serious debate

  News, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 21/09/2017

  » A review of Thailand's energy plans reveals an abundant electricity supply that vastly exceeds demand. So in the midst of this energy glut, why are we pushing hard to build more problematic hydroelectric dams in our neighbours' territories?

• News & article

  Mekong needs accountability, now

  News, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 14/11/2017

  » Last Wednesday, Pitsanukorn Deekaew, a resident of Chiang Khong district in Chiang Rai, received a welcome message from his lawyer. The appeal motion in his lawsuit regarding the Pak Beng dam project in Laos had been admitted for consideration by Thailand's Supreme Administrative Court.

• News & article

  Scrapping of Mekong 'rapids-blasting' long overdue

  News, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 08/02/2020

  » In a momentous win for the Mekong River, this week the Thai cabinet formally called for the cancellation of the Lancang-Mekong Navigation Channel Improvement Project, popularly known as the Mekong "rapids-blasting" project.

• News & article

  Karen fear ravages from river diversion schemes

  News, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 14/03/2020

  » Muesaw Chokedilok, an ethnic Karen woman from Thailand's Kaburdin Village in Chiang Mai's Omkoi district, hops aboard an old pickup truck for a rugged ride up the mountain. With her are a group of housewives from the same village, all clad in cotton handwoven clothes with beaded lace and colourful headscarves. They are on the way to meet a group of journalists from Bangkok. Their village is at least four hours by car to Muang Chiang Mai.

• News & article

  Salween diversion project enters troubled waters

  Oped, Pianporn Deetes, Published on 26/09/2020

  » Over the past few months, the Irrigation Department and the House Committee Review of Integrated River Basin Management have been heavily promoting an inter-basin water diversion scheme. Planned projects will divert water across Thailand, incorporating international river basins, including the Mekong and Salween, to address "water shortages" in Thailand.

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