Regional Round-up for Week of 11.15.19

EXSE FOCUS

Laos Defends Latest Plans to Dam the Mekong – Voice of America 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 mighty Mekong at crisis point – Capital Cambodia Typically this time of the year in the Mekong Basin, the annual monsoon is beginning to taper off, the mighty river’s banks are spilling over and saturating the flood plain in Cambodia and Vietnam and the river is moving millions of tonnes of sediment alongside of millions of tonnes of fish that migrate up and down the Mekong. Read more about the Tonle Sap and the fishing communities here. 

Public Statement by Fair Finance Thailand: Responsibility of Financiers of the Xayaburi Hydropower Project – Fair Finance Thailand The commercial sale of power produced by the Xayaburi Power XPCL’s Xayaburi Hydropower Project has begun since 29 October 2019 amidst sustaining opposition from civil society organizations in many countries and just a few months after the record low of water in the Mekong. // Fair Finance calls six Thai banks that lend to the Xayaburi dam to pressure the company for more transparency and adherence to sustainability goals. The statement is backed by multiple environmental groups in Thailand and highlights the importance of green financing. 

Southeast Asia and the right to safe water – China Dialogue More than 100 million people live without access to safe water in Southeast Asia. What can be done to improve that and to protect clean water sources, asks Sam Geall. // On 6 November, the Mekong River Commission acknowledged that climate change had exacerbated this year’s wildly varying water levels on the Mekong – which saw the mighty river reduced to a trickle in parts, even during the rainy season. But the main contributor, it said, was dam construction.

REGIONAL RELATIONS

Johor’s needs to be prioritised in times of water crisis: Malaysian water minister – Channel News Asia The Malaysian government will prioritise the water needs of Johoreans over those of “outsiders” in the event of a water crisis, said Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Xavier Jayakumar on Tuesday (Nov 12).

ASEAN and Non-Interference: What Do Cambodia’s Evolving Opposition Dynamics Reveal? – The Diplomat A closer look at Southeast Asia’s evolving approach to non-interference and the cross-border impacts of Cambodia’s recent opposition dynamics.// Over the weekend, Cambodia’s opposition leader Sam Rainsy landed in Malaysia after what he claimed was a foiled plan to return to Cambodia by land with an initial flight from Paris to Thailand. Irrespective of the details of Sam Rainsy’s travels, his voyage nonetheless put the spotlight on the cross-border impacts of Cambodia’s recent opposition dynamics and how other Southeast Asian states have responded to this development amid the traditional norm of non-interference within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

SUSTAINABILITY AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

In Viet Nam’s Highlands, Flowers Nurture New Prosperity – Asian Development Bank Each time Nguyen Quoc Son drops a batch of his chrysanthemums at Dalat Hasfarm, a flower growing company based in this provincial capital in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam, he moves a step closer to securing a better life for his children.

Thailand asks farmers not to grow off-season rice on drought worries – Reuters The Thai government has asked farmers in 22 provinces to not grow off-season rice, as the country braced for a dry spell amid low water levels in main reservoirs. Thailand, the world’s second-largest rice exporter after India, will not have enough water to grow the crop in some 960,000 hectares of rice fields around the Chao Phraya River basin in the coming months, authorities said on Monday.

Air quality at unhealthy levels in parts of Singapore; Hazy skies due to ‘accumulation of particulate matter’, says NEA – Channel News Asia The hazy conditions present in Singapore since early Wednesday morning was due to an “accumulation of particulate matter”, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said, as air quality edged into the “unhealthy” range in the eastern part of the country at about 11am, before readings in the south rose in the evening.

IEA says world needs ‘laser-like focus’ to bring down emissions – Channel News Asia The world must do much more to slash emissions if it is to defuse the climate change time bomb and deliver sustainable energy for a growing population, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday 

Earning their corn Bangkok Post Mae Chaem district in Chiang Mai has been chosen to kick off the government’s Energy for All scheme for community-owned power projects from renewable resources.

Nation’s first wind energy project on the table Khmer Times Singapore-based The Blue Circle Pte Ltd will hold talks with the government this month to discuss plans to build a wind park in Kampot province, according to a high-ranking energy official.

Burma’s Indigenous Karen Communities Move to Protect Rivers, Forests Karen News At the foot of Maw Law Ei Mountain, the highest peak in eastern Myanmar’s Karen State, increasing temperatures, drought and extreme weather events, such as flash-flooding, have become common. Members of the indigenous groups that make up the majority of the population here, talk about the significant changes they’ve seen in both the natural environment and the climate.

Myanmar risks losing forests to oil palm, but there’s time to pivot Mongabay Indonesia and Malaysia have long occupied the spotlight for oil palm plantations and their adverse consequences, including deforestation, habitat loss, climate change, and struggles with indigenous and local people. But other Southeast Asian countries are fast joining the two oil palm giants, with Myanmar following their development blueprint by allocating forestland for new plantations: A recent study published in Scientific Reports finds that nearly 60 percent of concessions for oil palm plantations in southern Myanmar consist of forests or non-rubber tree crops.

CHINA

The problem with China’s ‘clean coal’ push is that there is no such thing as ‘clean coal’ –South China Morning Post China is a global technological leader in renewable energy and is the world’s largest consumer of solar power. Both of these accomplishments came after Chinese policy leaders realised that coal-fired power generation stood in the way of cleaner skies and lower cost power.

Chinese Mega-Project in Myanmar’s Kayin State Sparks Resentment And Worry Radio Free Asia Dozens of newly built villas line a street as concrete skeletons of what may become hotels or casinos stand half-finished nearby. A new paved roadway allows access to more than a dozen boxy two-story buildings still under construction opposite plots of cleared land streaked with muddy tire tracks.

Chinese port and SEZ stoking fear in Rakhine state The ASEAN Post Aung Gyi is forced to fish covertly under the shroud of night in western Myanmar waters as China bids to transform the strategically key region into a shipping and industrial hub, squeezing out locals who fear being left behind in the gold rush.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Malaysian artists join opposition to Penang’s land reclamation project – South China Morning Post “It looks as if someone was trying to build something as large and expensive as possible, without taking the effort to plan it properly,” entrepreneur Curry Khoo said as we sat in a coffee shop in Bayan Lepas, close to Penang International Airport.

Murder of Indonesia palm oil activists shows growing threat, rights groups say – The Japan Times The murder of two Indonesian activists, which police say was ordered by a palm oil businessman, highlights the escalating violence and threats faced by environmentalists who challenge the industry, rights groups say.

LIST: Duterte’s revised lineup of Build, Build, Build projects – Rappler President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic team revised the list of the administration’s big-ticket infrastructure projects, as some of the items on the old list faced engineering and cost problems. The new Build, Build, Build list, which Rappler obtained through a reliable source, now features 100 projects instead of 75.

Pearl Farm Plan Could Spell Doom For Myanmar’s Nomadic ‘Sea Gypsies’ – Radio Free Asia The seafaring livelihoods of Myanmar’s “sea gypsies,” a nomadic ethnic group also known as Moken or Salone in Burmese, are being threatened by a plan to expand pearl farming in an archipelago they inhabit off the Southeast Asian country’s southern coast, members of the ethnic group and a village official said.

This week’s regional round-up was curated by Jean Joo and Alessandro Lee.