Dams and Difference in Ethnic Lao Spaces of the Mekong River Basin
Akarath (Ake) Soukhaphon
PhD Candidate in Geography
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Beginning in the 1990s, hydropower dam development in mainland Southeast Asia has seen steady political support among leaders of national governments, bolstered by claims that hydropower dams provide clean energy and a pathway towards poverty alleviation. Critics of these dams point to their negative social and environmental impacts. Such impacts are often broader, longer lasting, and deeper than what national governments and dam developers will acknowledge. For ethnic Lao peoples living along the Mekong River and its tributaries, hydropower dams have negatively impacted their lives and livelihoods. Many impacts, however, remain invisible in social and environmental impact assessments but have profound repercussions for the well-being of these communities. This talk makes visible some of these impacts among ethnic Lao communities in and around the Pak Mun Dam in northeastern Thailand, the Don Sahong and Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Dams in southern Laos, and the Lower Sesan 2 Dam in northeastern Cambodia. By utilizing a feminist political ecology approach across an ethno-ecological space, different problems of hydropower dam development are laid bare, offering dam developers and national governments more to consider in the construction and operation of such large-scale projects.