Laos

 Rivers Coalition in Cambodia (RCC) together with national and international organizations, insist to immediately stop all activities related to the construction of the Don Sahong Dam after the concession agreement was officially approved earlier this September in a unilateral decision by the Government of Laos.

Dear friends, Local communities in the Mekong region in Southeast Asia, who depend on the Mekong river and numerous other rivers and lakes for their livelihoods, need our urgent support. The dams already built on the main Mekong river and other rivers in the region have resulted in severe changes in these rivers, endangering life, livelihoods and the economy in the entire region.

By selecting the ‘Mekong River Basin’ from the left panel where it says 2River Basins in Focus’, detailed information will appear about the area.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is pivotal for creating demand and the conditions for widespread privatization in virtually every sector in the Asia Pacific region, from transportation, energy and urban development to agriculture, water and finance. Based on an infrastructure-led ‘growth’, the corporate sector is aggressively pushed in ADB supported projects through public-private partnerships (PPPs), loans, co-financing and another series of financial instruments.

In Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar it remains common until today that the wife will be the one who ‘owns’ the land of the paddy or upland rice fields. . Women therefore can be the ones fully responsible for maintaining those resources for the next generations.

Sombath Somphone, perhaps the Lao PDR's most prominent community development activist and founder of the Participatory Development Training Center (PADETC) was last seen on the evening of Dec 15, 2012 on a road in Vientiane. According to footage from a CCTV camera, he was stopped in his own vehicle by police, left it, and minutes later got into another vehicle and was driven off into the darkness.

Letter sent by the Save the Mekong Coalition, to the Mekong countries Prime Ministers demanding the immediate cancellation of the Don Sahong Dam and moratorium on decisions over other mainstream projects for the overall benefit of people throughout the Mekong region. The Don Sahong Project will irreparably damage the Khone Falls and our mother river – the Mekong.

The characteristics of natural rubber make it a competitive material for industrial and medical uses, but products related to transportation, tyres and tyre products, are by far the largest single end market for natural rubber: they account for over 50% of consumption.

Sombath Somphone, a farmer, scholar, scientist and community developer as well as a well-known activist in land issues and against mega-dams, has spent his life working for his people and country. He led several projects to improve food security through the use of low-cost and eco-friendly technologies and trained many people including women in participatory planning for integrated rural development as a means to tackle rural poverty.It was through this experience that Sombath came to believe that to alleviate poverty, development approaches must be multi-dimensional and multi-sectoral.

Sombath Somphone, a respected social activist winner of the international Ramon Magsaysay award in 2005 for community leadership and founder and former director of the Participatory Development Training Centre has disappeared since December 15 of this year. Family members said he had not returned home and they had no information on his whereabouts.