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Aidan Jones

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by surging waters across Myanmar and Laos, with Thai farming communities along the Mekong River bracing themselves for difficult days ahead as authorities warn persistent heavy rains may bring flash floods.
Each year monsoon rains bring extensive flooding across the region.
Environmental campaigners say the damage is exacerbated by changing weather patterns and deforestation, as well as the string of dams across arterial rivers – like the Mekong – and smaller tributaries that alter the natural water flow and drainage.
Unverified images from Laos circulating on Thai television news showed torrents of water spewing over a dam spillway, as residents cowered on rooftops awaiting rescue from rising waters.
Aerial footage showed vast tracts of land completely submerged, while flash floods rushing through the mountainous terrain ripped up roads and bridges.

In Laos, a resource crunch following a months-long fuel and inflation crisis has compounded the inability of civil society to help overstretched and under-equipped government rescue efforts.
Rescue work in worst-hit northern, central and southern Laos – one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations – has been hampered by threadbare resources, according to a volunteer rescue group contacted by This Week in Asia.
“We normally help out across the country every flood season,” the volunteer said, requesting anonymity in a country where media coverage was tightly controlled.
“But this year we have no money to pay for gas to take our rescue boats to the southern region. The downturn in the economy means the government agencies are also struggling to help.”
The volunteer shared photos of idled boats and rescue vehicles at its base near the capital Vientiane, saying donations had shrivelled up since the US-Israel attack on Iran sent fuel prices in the landlocked nation skyrocketing.

Meanwhile, the civil war in neighbouring Myanmar is compounding the impact of flooding on remote, vulnerable populations – with some of the worst-hit communities in conflict areas – according to reports in anti-government media that opposes the military in charge of the country.
Myanmar authorities say more than 40,000 people have been hit by the flooding since the end of July, mainly in the Ayeyarwady region, where rivers pour into the Andaman Sea, forcing many into temporary relief camps.
Flooding had hit over 225 villages, state mouthpiece the Global New Light of Myanmar reported, praising army personnel for leading the relief effort.
In the information gap, there are few verified reports of the success of the military response. But the Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is known, has been criticised in the past for slow or absent relief efforts during disasters in districts known to oppose the government.
Massive amounts of water released from bulging reservoirs behind dams in China following recent record rains have contributed to Laos’ woes, according to Painporn Deetes, executive director of Rivers and Rights.
“Anything that happens upstream inevitably affects downstream countries,” she said.

At the same time, toxic sludge carried by the Kok and Sai rivers from unregulated rare earth mines in Myanmar’s Shan state would now pulse downstream into Thailand, she warned, saying flood events now carried “deadly sediment” that would spill into fields.
Thai authorities are preparing for widespread flooding as river levels reach critical levels along the banks of the Mekong River, a waterway that sweeps from the Myanmar border in the west into southern Laos in the east.
“Rice fields and agricultural areas along the Mekong River in Nong Khai and Bueng Kan are flooded,” Ormbun Thipsuna, president of Community of Mekong River Network, told This Week in Asia. “Nakhon Phanom is experiencing the worst flooding it has seen in years this year.”
Ormbun said farmers received up to 2,000 baht (US$60) per lost rai of land (0.16 hectares). “But the compensation is never near enough to cover the money farmers have invested in growing their crops.”


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Laos

As floods devastate Mekong communities, economic strain, conflict compound crisis

People wade through a flooded area due to monsoon rains and rising river water levels in Wetlet, Myanmar’s Sagaing region on Monday.  Photo: AFP

The Mekong River as seen from the intersection of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Photo: Rivers and Rights

People wade through a flooded area due to monsoon rains and rising river water levels in Wetlet, Myanmar’s Sagaing region on Monday. Photo: AFP

Rescuers attempt to mend a breach of the Ngawun River embankment in Laymyethna township in Ayeyarwady region, Myanmar, on August 7. Photo: Ayeyarwady Region Government / Handout via Xinhua

Residents look out at flood waters from a building in Lemyethna in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta region on August 3. Photo: AFP

A woman wades through a flooded area due to monsoon rains and rising river water levels in Wetlet, Myanmar’s Sagaing region, on Monday. Photo: AFP

Myanmar and Laos plan downstream Mekong’s biggest dam yet

The Mekong as seen from the intersection of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Photo: Rivers and Rights

Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing (left) walks with Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith after a memorandum of understanding signing in Vientiane on July 3. Photo: Myanmar’s Presidential Press and Information Bureau/AFP

Protesters demonstrate against Myanmar’s military coup in Yangon on February 15, 2021. Photo: AFP

5 villagers trapped in flooded Laos cave freed after 10-day ordeal

Finnish cave diver Mikko Paasi with the first survivor rescued from a flooded cave network in Xaysomboun province, central Laos, on Saturday. Photo: Josh Richards/dpa

One of the villagers being freed from a flooded cave in central Xaysomboun province, Laos, on Saturday. Photo: Facebook/ Mikko Paasi

After years in tiny cages, 27 moon bears in Laos finally taste freedom

One of the moon bears rescued from an illegal bear bile farm in Laos. Photo: Free the Bears

Moon bears seen in cages at the illegal bear bile farm in Laos. Photo: Free the Bears

Free the Bears staff rescue moon bears from the illegal bile farm in Laos. Photo: Free the Bears

The 27 animals were loaded onto vehicles and driven hundreds of kilometres south. Photo: Free the Bears

One of the rescued moon bears rests in quarantine after arriving at the sanctuary in Luang Prabang. Photo: Free the Bears

Myanmar touts economic potential but is it pie in the sky with it still at war?

A road in Yangon, Myanmar in March. Experts say Myanmar remains far from recovering its previous footing which began with political and economic reforms in 2011 – a period of growth abruptly ended by the coup. Photo: EPA

Myanmar’s ex-junta chief Min Aung Hlaing (left) and Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul make a toast during an official dinner in Bangkok. Photo: AFP/Royal Thai government/Handout

Passengers wait for their train on a platform at Naypyidaw station in March. Analysts say Min Aung Hlaing’s economic plans pivot on highways, railways, dams and power projects. Photo: AFP

Mong Jawd tungsten mine in Mong Ton township, Shan State, Myanmar. Analysts say that “real investment has narrowed to resource extraction”. Photo: Shan Human Rights Foundation

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Tens of thousands have been displaced in Laos and Myanmar, with rescue efforts hampered by threadbare resources


Tens of thousands have been displaced in Laos and Myanmar, with rescue efforts hampered by threadbare resources.


As floods devastate Mekong communities, economic strain, conflict compound crisis

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tens of thousands have been displaced in Laos and Myanmar, with rescue efforts hampered by threadbare resources

Tens of thousands have been displaced in Laos and Myanmar, with rescue efforts hampered by threadbare resources