By Tipakson Manpati, 12 January 2010

My Mekong River

I joined Children Day this year with a big group of active youths from Khon Kaen University and Rajchapat Udonthani and also with “young heart” people from Human Rights and Peace Information Center of Northeast Thailand, Children and Social Development Center and villagers struggling groups against bad development projects like potash mine in Udonthani province and Lam Pa Niang water diversion project in Nongbualampu province. The Children Day was held on January 9, 2010 at Huay Khob-Huay Hiam school, Huay Khob village, Had Kam Pi sub-district, Pak Chom district, Loei province.

Dams Upriver Hurting People Living Downstream

When 42-year-old Zhang Chun Shan, a Chinese farmer-cum-activist, told a public forum in Bangkok this week that he was unaware of the negative impact his great nation's hydropower projects have caused to neighboring countries downstream, a hundred participants understood him.

A cargo ship struggles to negotiate the Mekong River in Chiang Rai in April last year, where water levels had dropped considerably due to China 's damming of the river further north. At other times, such as August this year, water released by the dams in China during periods of heavy rainfall have contributed to flooding in riverine communities.

Russian Mine to Supply Uranium to Junta?

Khun Chan Khe, an alumnus of ERI's Mekong School and the General Secretary of the Thailand-based Pa-O Youth Organization (PYO), recently published an opinion in The Irrawaddy.

Excerpt: "Since 2006, I have been monitoring an iron ore mining project unfolding around my village in a remote ethnic Pa-O area in war torn Shan State, led by the state-owned Russian company Tyazhpromexport. . . . Extreme travel restrictions have been imposed against local people by the Burma Army around the iron project, and there has been an almost complete lack of public information about the project, to a degree unusual even for the reclusive Burmese regime. Local villagers have quietly heard from staff insiders that the factory will be used to process both iron and uranium. "

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