Updated Factsheet
The governments of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam are planning to build eleven large hydropower dams on the Lower Mekong River. If built, these dams would destroy the river’s rich biodiversity and threaten the food security of millions of people.
When the dams were first proposed, there was limited understanding of the ways that people depend on the Mekong River and its ecosystems. Now that the threats posed by the Mekong dams have become clearer, tensions have grown between the people who will profit from the dams and those who will bear the impacts. This factsheet provides an overview of the controversy around the proposed Lower Mekong dams.