With meteorologists forecasting a longer, harsher drought for the Mekong Delta this summer, authorities in the region's coastal provinces are trying to provide sufficient water for both crops and daily household use.

It is necessary to raise public awareness of the need to actively prevent natural disasters to cope with the upcoming storm season.

U.S. Senator Jim Webb, chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has issued a statement regarding proposed construction in Laos of the Xayaburi Dam on the Mekong River, which also flows through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Vietnam wants concerned nations to jointly make a thorough overall study of the impact of hydroelectric projects on the Mekong River’s main current before making decisions on building such works, said the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

Emerging countries like Brazil and China are building numerous hydroelectric dams at home and abroad to help drive their economic growth. But while in Latin America the phenomenon is touted as an integration process, in Asia it has generated tension over the shared use of rivers.

By Mario Osava*  |  Apr 13, 2011

Source: IPS News online -

  Source: VOV News, April 18, 2011 -
Vietnam is considering appropriate policies and measures to ensure both its own food security and food exports in a sustainable manner.

Context: Analysis of field survey data and historic literature documents in Vietnam reveal evidence of tsunamis "attacking" the Vietnamese coast. Analysis and modeling of seismic activities and structure of tectonic plates in the South China Sea (SCS) reveal four areas with potential of producing tsunami by earthquake and propagation of tsunami in the SCS. Included in the modeling was the observation of potential for a tsunami more than 1.5 meters high along the Vietnamese coast generated by an earthquake with magnitude 7.0 at the fault along the Central Vietnam shelf.

Development in Lao PDR: The food Security Paradox, by David Fullbrook
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
FEB 2010

Mekong Delta fertility at risk, experts warn, as they reiterate calls to cancel plans to build the Xayaburi Dam in Laos

Thanh Nien | 4/15/2011

With less than a week to go before the Mekong River Commission’s Joint Committee makes a decision on a major hydropower dam on the river, environmentalists highlighted its infeasibility and called for its cancellation.

The book “Training of Trainer on Climate Change” was just introduced in Hanoi on March 23, 2011. This is an activity of the project “Capacity Building on Climate Change for Vietnamese Civil Society Organizations” financed by the Finnish Embassy’s Fund for Local Cooperation and implemented by the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development.