Politicization of the Hydropower Dams in the Lancang-Mekong Basin: A Review of Contemporary Environmental Challenges

Richard Grünwald,Wenling Wang,Yan Feng

doi:10.3390/en15051682

Abstract

To date, hydropower dams raise numerous interpretations about their impact on the Lancang-Mekong River. While most research studies analyze the negative aspects of hydropower development on people’s livelihoods and local environments, the hydropower sector was historically one of the most iconic economic segments facilitating transboundary water cooperation for decades. By using the constructive discourse analysis and critical political ecology approach, the presented text (1) outlines the current environmental narratives over the Lancang-Mekong hydropower development and (2) explores the politicization of the Chinese mainstream dams. The data were collected upon the multi-level content analysis of relevant sources and double-checked with the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and Conflict Database (LMCCD) monitoring over 4000 water-related events among six riparian countries between 1990 and 2021. Our data show that (i) there is a stark contrast in positive and negative narratives over the rapid hydropower development, (ii) the impact of mainstream dams on the river is more often discussed than that of tributary dams, (iii) implications of the hydropower dams are often interpreted upon the non-traditional research inputs rather than widely accepted studies, and (iv) developing the contradictory arguments through social and public media contributes to greater polarization of the multi-stakeholders’ viewpoints in the accountable research dialogue.

Highlights

Hydropower development in the Lancang-Mekong Basin has attracted significant media attention for decades
The hydropower development is often accompanied by intense pressure on technical and technological innovations [11,12,46,118], deepening the joint transboundary water management [21,37,132]
Despite the fact that upstream mainstream dams are widely considered a renewable source of energy with negligible economic benefits and high socio-environmental costs for the downstream countries [16,17,21,71,91], abandoning or decommissioning hydropower dams is not a viable option

Summary

Introduction

Hydropower development in the Lancang-Mekong Basin has attracted significant media attention for decades. Apart from providing development aid and other assistance [5,6,7], hydropower development slowly became a politically acceptable and economically viable solution for ensuring some sort of pragmatic and long-lasting cooperation that endured even the horrors of the Cold War era. Sub-region (GMS), ASEAN Mekong Basin Development Cooperation (AMBDC), etc.) have been launched since the end of the Cold War to follow the legacy of exceptional water cooperation. Such open support for advancing the basin development was not fully accompanied by good water governance principles [8,9,10] and deep consideration of the complex hydro-meteorological changes

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion