Upstream Dams Cause Downstream Concerns: Chinese dams on the Upper Mekong River are creating erratic fluctuations on water flow. Yet, people living off the river downstream are neither consulted nor informed of changes affecting their livelihood.

Traveling Down the Mekong River

Expert Views and Analysis: China's Influence

The Mekong River basin currently provides 1,600 megawatts of electricity and has potential for 30,000 megawatts,. But is the cost of modernization too high?

Expert Views and Analysis: Damming the Mekong

The Mekong River is the world's most productive fishery – supplying critical food security for the region. But experts cite declining animal protein and edible oils in the local diet. Why?

Expert Views and Analysis: Mekong Fisheries

The Mekong Basin is home to 100 languages and 70 million of the world's poorest people, for whom any ecological change—man-made or natural—could drastically alter how they live.

Expert Views and Analysis: People of the River

At the mouth of the Mekong River, climate change is affecting the livelihoods of both those who fish the river and those who fish the sea.

The End of the River

Seasonal rice harvests in the Mekong River Delta are threatened by the rise of sea tides due to climate change.

Vietnam's Rice Bowl

The Mekong Delta has traditionally served as a nexus of commerce to the people of southern Vietnam, but development is threatening the livelihood of area residents.

Vietnam's Floating Marketplace

Rising Mekong waters also expand the Tonle Sap, giving Cambodians a steady fishing income, for a time.

Fishing the River

Cambodians gather in the capital, Phnom Penh, to witness annual boat races and fireworks.

Festivities on the Mekong

Overfishing, pollution, and development of the Mekong River in Cambodia could kill off a rare species.

Rare Dolphins at Risk

The Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos aims to turn the Mekong and its tributaries into a major new regional power source, but at what cost?

Dam Aims to Power Region

The release of excess rainwater from overburdened dams in Vietnam has catastrophic results on river communities downstream in Cambodia.

Downstream Dangers

A look at the intimate connection between the Mekong River and the daily lives of the Laotian people.

River Life in Laos

Planned dam infrastructure threatens the Khone Falls, the only major drop in elevation along the Mekong River and a traditionally important center for the fishing industry in Laos.

Dams Threaten Falls Fisheries

In Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand, construction of the Pak Mun dam was so disastrous for the local economy that it stalled all new dam projects across the country.

Damming Lessons

The Mekong River is the longest river in Southeast Asia and supports the lives of 70 million people from Tibet to Vietnam. Our reporters undertook the journey to tell their stories in blog posts, video diaries and images.

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Traveling Down the Mekong River

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