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Lower Mekong Basin hydropower development and the tradeoff between the traditional and modern sectors: ‘Out with the old, in with the New’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Scott W. D. Pearse-Smith
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The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) denotes the geographical area that drains into the Mekong River and its tributaries within the Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. Hydropower development of the LMB’s water resources is proceeding at a rapid pace (Friend, Arthur, & Keskinen, 2009). In addition to 124 hydropower projects at various stages of development, up to twelve mainstream dams are planned for the LMB (ICEM, 2010; MRC, 2010). This large- scale hydro-development involves countless trade-offs of interests, creating clear winners and losers. One of the most significant tradeoffs is that between the ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ sectors.

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Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 23 , June 2012 , e1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012

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