The lake that feeds Cambodia is starved of water
The Tonle Sap lake supplies most of Cambodia’s protein and sustains millions of livelihoods. But dams and climate change are weakening its flood pulse, and fishers who once caught 50 kilograms a day are now returning with almost nothing.
Heavily reliant on pesticides, Thai agriculture is ‘trapped in a vicious cycle’
Six years after a landmark pesticide ban, Thailand’s farming system is still built around chemical dependency. Campaigners say the country solved a scandal, not the system behind it.
As dams rise along Laos’ rivers, temples disappear
Laos has positioned itself as Southeast Asia’s leading hydropower exporter. Along its rivers, the cost has been measured in demolished temples, submerged shrines and communities still searching for stable ground.
Thailand pauses deep-sea port plan after fisherfolk sit-in
Thailand has withdrawn a bill that would have turned four southern provinces into a special economic zone, after mounting protests over a deep-sea port that threatened local fisherfolk and the tourist island of Koh Payam.
How Thailand’s Emergency Law is reaching into the lives of women
Thailand’s Emergency Decree gives security forces the power to detain suspects for up to thirty days without charge. Two women in the Deep South describe what happens when that power reaches into a family.
A decade after the Erawan Shrine bombing, two death sentences
A Bangkok court has sentenced two Uyghur men to death for the 2015 Erawan Shrine bombing, which killed 20 people. The ruling closes one of Thailand’s longest-running trials, but it has not settled the questions surrounding it.
Myanmar’s refugees found safety in Thailand. Educating their children is proving far harder
Since Myanmar’s coup, Thailand has been absorbing not just refugees but an entire generation of students. How to give them a real education, in a language they are only beginning to learn, is still an open question.
Transboundary mining pollution spreads further down Thailand’s Mekong
What began as a contamination crisis on a northern tributary has reached the Mekong’s northeastern stretch, with lab results now confirming heavy metals in deformed fish hundreds of kilometres downstream.
A work permit costs 3,700 baht. She paid 21,000
Most Myanmar migrants in Thailand cannot obtain a work permit without a broker. The official fee is 3,700 baht. What brokers charge is rarely that – and there is little to stop them from charging more.
