Text Box: Diplomat April 2018 Mekong-Cuulong Blog

By Tom Fawthrop

The Mekong has long cast a mystical spell over adventurers, wildlife experts, and
scientists enchanted by its spectacular rapids and waterfalls, along with its endangered dolphins, giant manta rays, and Siamese crocodiles. The river’s biodiversity is second only to the Amazon.

In recent years, however, this great international river – which flows through six countries – has increasingly grabbed the attention of engineers, technocrats, and energy consultants on a very different kind of mission: to exploit its roaring currents in pursuit of hydropower.

Any idea of environmental protection for the wonders of the Mekong has been marginalized by China’s grand Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with its focus firmly fixed on trade, infrastructure development, and, along the Mekong, dam construction. Tiếp tục đọc “The Unfolding Mekong Development Disaster –” →