Power Surge The Impacts of Rapid Dam Development in Laos

Laos has declared it a national priority to catalyze the country's development through the rapid construction of large dams that export high-risk hydropower to neighboring Thailand and Vietnam. With six big dams already in operation, seven currently under construction and development deals pending on another thirty-five, Laos is in the midst of an unprecedented dam-building boom. Power surge chronicles the social and environmental debt created by this boom. Lao villagers are being sold down the river in hydro deals that take their fertile farmland and river fisheries, leaving them without critical sources of food and income.