Pollution and waste

What’s been up with (and in) the air we breathe? Smoggy haze and deteriorating air quality has seen folks in Laos’ capital and beyond reaching for face masks, air filters and measuring equipment.What they have found has been enlightening and disturbing. Air quality over much ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Wildfires in Laos and neighbouring countries are causing dangerous levels of air pollution in many regions of Laos, especially in the capital.Director General of the Pollution Control Department under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Mrs Sisouphanh Luanglath, told Vientiane ...

An unhealthy haze of smog has descended upon the capital city of Vientiane and air pollution has been noted in several other provinces around Laos.Concerned local and international residents have been monitoring the situation, posting online their own amateur updates on the local levels of atmospheric ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Waste management in hospitals remains a challenge because most health facilities in Laos do not have waste disposal systems that are comply with international hygiene standards.A senior official from the Healthcare and Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Health, Dr Viengsavanh ...

Each and every morning, the loudspeakers in Vientiane’s Sangveuy Village, of Sisattanak District, can be heard sending out a special message from the Village Chief, Mr Oudomxay Sisomphone.  His message is clear and concise: stop burning garbage, and stop littering. A breath of fresh air ...

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has been keeping a close eye on air quality in Vientiane as Bangkok suffers high pollution levels.Director General of the ministry’s Natural Resource and Environment Research Institute, Mr Vilasak Choundala, said yesterday the institute had stationed equipment to ...

Chemicals released into a river by a Chinese-owned banana farm near the Lao capital Vientiane killed over 300 kg of fish in November, prompting warnings by authorities to local villagers not to bathe or fish in the polluted stream, sources in the country say.The release, ...

Two Chinese-owned cement factories in the Vang Vieng district of Laos’ Vientiane Province are covering approximately 900 local families in at least four villages with dust and smog, threatening their health, local sources say.The affected villages of the northwestern province include Khanmark, Houa Ngam, Phonesoung and ...

Waste run-off from upstream factories may be responsible for the recent deaths of over 40 cows in a village in Laos, local villagers and a government official say.More ...

Savannakhet province authorities have ordered a paper factory in Xepon district to stop conducting tests until construction is complete, with its operations suspected of causing river pollution. The Chinese-owned factory, claimed to be the third largest of its type in the world, test ran equipment ...