By Andrew Nette - Newsmekong*

PHNOM PENH, Mar 28 (IPS) - The Lao government’s decision earlier this year to press ahead with plans to build the Don Sahong dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River in southern Laos is causing major concern in Cambodia and internationally.

By Andrew Nette - Newsmekong

PHNOM PENH, Mar 21 (IPS) - For the Cambodian government, hydropower development represents great economic opportunities. But for non-government organisations (NGOs), and the communities they serve, dams pose severe social and environmental impacts.

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

TENGANAN, Bali, Indonesia , Dec 19 (IPS) - When they next harvest the the terraced paddy fields on a gently sloping hill, the farmers in this village will reinforce a tradition that celebrates harmony between people and the environment -- and do their bit to slow down climate change.

By Irfan Shahzad*

KEERANWALA, Pakistan, Nov 21 (IPS) – Mansha, a middle-aged farmer here in this village in Punjab province, surveys his ready-to-harvest rice crop with delight and is optimistic about the next wheat crop to be sown after the rice harvest in mid-November.

By Puy Kea*
    
PHNOM PENH, Oct 31 (IPS/AMIC) - A Cambodian public official has weathered assassination threats and a slow-moving bureaucracy in this post-conflict country to create one of the most trusted and safest water supplies in Asia.

   By Kalinga Seneviratne*

ORISSA, India, Oct 29 (IPS/AMIC) – Gram Vikas, one of India’s largest non-government organisations, has a simple solution to uplift rural Adivasi (tribal) communities across this eastern Indian state – it’s a MANTRA (Movement and Action Network for Transformation of Rural Areas) of all in, or all out.

By M Martin

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Kerala, Oct 1 (IPS) - Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney described his 2002 Kerala tour in one word – 'magical'. For thousands who throng the state's green villages, picturesque backwaters and beaches, the experience is no less than a 'Magical Mystery Tour’. But local fisherwomen say it means new and harsh realities for them.

By Thalif Deen

STOCKHOLM, Aug 17 (IPS) - As the world faces new threats of water scarcity, triggered by phenomena like global warming and bioenergy demands, Singapore and Iraq have been singled out as two political extremes in water management.

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 22 (IPS) - A planned survey to check the economic pulse of fishing communities living on the banks of South-east Asia's largest freshwater lake -- the Tonle Sap in Cambodia -- threatens to expose serious shortcomings in an Asian Development Bank (AsDB) anti-poverty initiative.

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Feb 28 (IPS) - Being a village headman means little if you live in a community nestling in the hills close to Thailand's northern border with Burma. More so, if officials have plans to use your village for a large ‘development' project.