"Dammed in the Mekong: Averting an Environmental Catastrophe" 7 October 2024

What is happening? Exploitation of the Mekong River basin’s natural resources, especially through hydropower and sand mining, is causing escalating harm to the region’s ecosystems and endangering the livelihoods of millions of people. The effects of development are distributed unevenly, with many of the costs borne by the poor and marginalised. 

Why does it matter? Environmental damage from rampant hydropower development and climate change threaten the river’s seasonal movements, supply of sediment, fish stocks and the physical security of people living along the Mekong in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. These populations could be at risk of large-scale displacement. 

What should be done? Policymakers should pay greater heed to the ecological value of the natural flow of the Mekong and its tributaries. They should accelerate adoption of solar and wind power. Greater transparency, data sharing and participatory decision-making – including consultation with riparian communities – in infrastructure development would improve transboundary resource governance.