(November 12, 1997) China has dammed its third major river in a month in an effort to boost hydro-electric power capacity, the China Daily reported Wednesday.

(September 24, 1997) Non-government organisations have demanded that the World Bank address fundamental questions regarding the proposed Nam Theun 2 (NT2) dam before it goes ahead with the next stage of the US $1.5 billion project in central Laos.

(March 21, 1995) Before sunrise the men have collected the night’s catch from the large lee traps scaffolded over the rushing water. Women sit gutting and chopping the silver-white fish, to get them ready for smoking. ‘Not a great catch, but good enough,’ says one man, placing his fish on the scales. ‘Last season, one of these traps caught over a ton of fish in just one night.

(December 1, 1994) The river auction has commenced. The Lao PDR government has taken its first steps down a seductive but treacherous path to prosperity and development: renting its rivers for hydroelectric dams.

(December 1, 1994) The 4200-kilometer Mekong is the tenth largest river in the world, carrying 475,000 million cubic meters of water to the sea annually. The river flows from the Tibetan Himalayas southward through China and passes north of Burma, its watershed encompassing nearly all of Laos, northeast Thailand, most of Cambodia, and the delta of south Vietnam.