The politics of hydropower: developing the Mekong

With renewed economic interest in the Southeast Asian region following the 'peace dividend' of the early 1990s, numerous hydrodevelopment plans have b een initiated in the Mekong basin. The river-as-resource, in a glibly biore gional metaphor, has been transformed from a Cold War 'front line' into a ' corridor of commerce', drawing six riparian states together in the pursuit of sustainable development through economic and infrastructural integration and cooperation, promoted by multi- and bilateral donors and lending insti tutions. Through a brief examination of the discursive framing of Mekong hy drodevelopment, this paper uncovers some of the implications of an emerging regional geopolitical imagination centred on the naturalising metaphor of the watershed. Through a discussion of the increasing involvement of privat e capital, and the politicisation of resource use, the implications of hydr odevelopment for Laos, an upstream state currently undergoing major hydrode velopment, and Cambodia, a downstream state, are explored. (C) 1999 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.