<p dir="ltr">The military has summoned the leader of an environmental group opposing China’s exploration of the Mekong River for the purposes of developing a commercial shipping route. &nbsp;</p> <p>On 25 April 2017, Col Jarat Panyadi, Deputy Commander of the 37 Military Circle of Chiang Rai, <a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=4107">summoned </a>Niwat Roikaew, the leader of an a local environmental conservation group called ‘Khon Rak Chiang Kong’, for a “chat” at a coffee shop.</p>

<p>Economic growth in the Greater Mekong region depends on the Mekong River, but unsustainable and uncoordinated development is pushing the river system to the brink, including in Thailand, a new report from WWF finds.&nbsp;Governments, businesses, and communities in the region must come together to better manage the river in a way that respects the ecosystem’s limits if economic growth is to continue.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A civil society group in Isan, Thailand’s northeast, say that the military government should not only blame politicians on water mismanagement, but civil servants and other public agencies as well.</p> <p>On Sunday, 31 January 2016, Maj Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd, spokesperson of the Prime Minister's Office under Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and PM, revealed a 12 years water management plan of the government.</p>

<p>Administrative Court officials have said that Thai governmental agencies accused of failing to safeguard the public interest by giving the green light to the construction of a controversial hydroelectric dam on the Mekong River should be acquitted. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>The Administrative Court, on Monday morning, 30 November 2015, held the final hearing on a case over the Xayaburi Dam, a controversial hydroelectric dam on the main stem of Mekong River, east of Xayaburi Town in northern Laos.</p>