The Bay of Bengal (BoB) region is emerging as an important focal point for climate security risks. This is largely due to a multi-layered interplay of geopolitical, geostrategic, and climate-related regional dynamics. It forms the final leg between West and East Asia. The region is one of the most climate-vulnerable …
This report provides a data-based analysis of flood risk in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Nepal, with the aim of supporting better decision-making on disaster preparedness and community-led innovations on disasters. The report provdes an overview of flood events and damages in 2017. It looks at trends in flooding in both …
This guidebook documents the experiences and lessons learned from developing 12 pilot mini-grid systems for off-grid energy access in Myanmar. Unelectrified rural communities typically located 10 kilometers from the national grid and without prospects of being connected to the grid in the next 5 to 10 years have been chosen …
From the mid-2000s, a commodity boom underpinned a wave of land use investments in low- and middle-income countries. While agribusiness, mining and petroleum concessions often involve promises of jobs and public revenues, they have also prompted concerns about land dispossession, exclusionary investment models and infringements of the rights of vulnerable …
Big hydropower dams are not a priority in Myanmar’s strategy to tackle chronic power shortages, the country’s new energy minister said in an interview that cast doubt over a controversial China-backed project in the country’s north. Already the construction minister, Win Khaing has overhauled the poor Southeast Asian country’s power …
Financing, policy and operating needs of enterprises delivering energy access will be critical to achieve SDG7. This report looks at five key countries – Bangladesh, Myanmar, Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria – and provides insights on actions needed to scale up decentralized renewable electricity and clean cooking solutions.
JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Facing a backlash in Europe over palm oil’s environmental toll, the world’s top producers are scrambling to find new markets and even striking unusual barter deals, such as exchanging Sukhoi jets for the edible oil. The European Union is the second-largest palm oil export destination after …
1044 women of child-bearing age from 25 countries participated in the study. 42% of them had mercury levels greater than 1 ppm — the level that approximately corresponds to the US EPA reference dose.* 55% of the women had mercury levels greater than 0.58 ppm mercury, a more recent, science-based …
Fast-dwindling mangroves in Myanmar's low-lying Ayeyarwady Delta, ravaged by decades of deforestation and conversion of land for agriculture and aquaculture, could find an unlikely saviour - drones. Mangroves protect coastlines in the face of storms and rising sea levels, absorb carbon from the atmosphere, and boost fish stocks, experts say. …
State Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department Director Dr Saingura Sailo said laboratory tests confirmed that the cause of the deaths of pigs in Champhai and Biate was classical swine fever which had been present in the state since 1990s. At least 210 pigs and piglets have died due to outbreak …
YANGON, July 31 (Reuters) - Four more people have died in an outbreak of H1N1 influenza in Myanmar, a health official said on Monday, taking the death toll in the latest outbreak to 10 as the government stepped up public awareness campaigns about the swine flu virus. The latest H1N1 …
Flooding across large parts of Myanmar has displaced more than 100,000 people, causing two deaths, while dramatic riverbank erosion has washed away a Buddhist pagoda, officials, residents and state media said on Monday. Water levels have risen steadily since unrelenting monsoon rain began to lash the heart of the Southeast …
More than 80,000 young children may need treatment for malnutrition in part of western Myanmar where the army cracked down on stateless Rohingya Muslims last year, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday. Myanmar's security forces launched a counter-offensive in the northern part of Rakhine state after attacks by …
The leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) ranges widely throughout the Indian Ocean, although nesting appears restricted to a few scattered areas. In the northeast Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, leatherbacks nest on the Indian mainland (small numbers), Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka, western coast of Thailand (small numbers), Sumatra, and Java. …
Democratic Republic of Congo has suffered two separate outbreaks of polio, a debilitating and potentially deadly disease that the world is trying to eradicate, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. Confirmation of the outbreaks in Congo's Haut-Lomami and Maniema provinces came less than a week after the WHO said …
In April 2016, southeast Asia experienced surface air temperatures (SATs) that surpassed national records, exacerbated energy consumption, disrupted agriculture and caused severe human discomfort. Here we show using observations and an ensemble of global warming simulations the combined impact of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon and long-term warming on …
Abuses linked to mining in countries such as Myanmar and Colombia are being overlooked by technology companies focused only on eliminating “conflict minerals” from war-torn parts of Africa in their supply chains, researchers said. In Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), competition for mineral resources has fuelled two decades of conflict …
Farmers in Myanmar can now seek prompt solutions to agriculture-related problems through a call centre set up by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation. Union Minister Dr Aung Thu said the call centre, which began operating on March 1, will dispense modern agricultural and production technologies, packaging methods, logistics …
With tourism growing, the Rakhine State government is planning a new hotel zone near Ngapali Beach for long-term sustainable tourism. Rakhine State Planning and Finance Minister U Kyaw Aye Thein told The Myanmar Times that the government was considering this, as there were some hotels in the area that were …
The Three Millennium Development Goal Fund (3MDG) handed over 15 rural health centres in the Ayeyarwady Region to the Health and Sports Ministry on Monday in support of the government’s move to improve access to healthcare in hard-to-reach areas. The five rural and 10 sub-rural health centres were handed over …
Mandalay City Development Committee’s Water and Sanitation Department has kicked off a plan to supply 100 percent of the demand for drinking water to all seven townships within the district by 2020. Currently, clean potable water supply in Mandalay is only available in five townships in Mandalay. In Aung Myay …
