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Story Publication logo February 28, 2014

Lake Tonle Sap: Hydropower on the Mekong

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Image by Chris Berdik. Cambodia, 2013.
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For centuries, the flood pulse of this lake has fed a nation and nurtured incredible biodiversity...

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Media file: 20140126_095720.jpg
Construction site for the Lower Sesan2, a 420 MW hydropower dam planned for the Sesan River in Cambodia. Image by Chris Berdik. Cambodia, 2014.

Hydropower is booming on the Mekong River. The energy and money these dams produce are vital to a fast growing, rapidly developing region. The likely benefits of hydropower are substantial, but critics say many, if not most, of these large dams are going forward without a full reckoning of their environmental and social costs. There are more than 120 major hydropower dams planned along the Mekong and its major tributaries. We visited villages in the shadow of just one: the Lower Sesan2, planned near the confluence of Cambodia's Sesan and Srepok Rivers.

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