GEG WP 2013/81 China and the Politics of Hydropower Development: Governing Water

Abstract

The Mekong River Basin has reemerged in recent years as a region of geostrategic significance. Extensive hydropower development, coupled with the effects of climate variability and increased resource competition, has generated a host of concerns regarding the future of the important Lancang-Mekong River. Given the contentious allocation of stakeholder responsibilities vis-à-vis the management of the river’s shared water resources, the implications of such discord for human and ecological security in the region are wide-ranging. It is nevertheless within an increasingly contested public sphere that affected communities, together with local and international NGOs, have come to play a greater role in holding the Chinese government to account for the consequences of its hydro-development schemes, in particular the Lancang dam cascade in Yunnan Province.