Between Interests and Worldviews: The Narrow Path of the Mekong River Commission

Diana Suhardiman, Mark Giordano and François Molle
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Diana Suhardiman: International Water Management Institute, South East Asia Regional Office, PO Box 4199, Vientiane, Lao PDR
Mark Giordano: International Water Management Institute, PO Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka
François Molle: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 911 avenue Agropolis, BP 64501, 34394 Montpellier, France; and International Water Management Institute, PO Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria

Environment and Planning C, 2015, vol. 33, issue 1, 199-217

Abstract: Hydropower development is occurring at a rapid, though controversial, pace in the Mekong. We highlight the role of scientific assessment in shaping the Mekong hydropower debate, taking the strategic environmental assessment of the twelve planned mainstream dams as a case study. While environmental impact assessments are designed as science-based decision-making tools, they have often been criticized in practice as a political means to justify already made development decisions. In this case we demonstrate how the Mekong River Commission, operating in a constrained political environment, has instead used environmental impact assessment as a way of providing political space and opening the discussion on dams to a wider public. The main argument of this paper is that scientific assessment can be politically maneuvered to shape governance alliances at both national and transboundary levels, and to a certain extent democratize decision-making processes.

Keywords: environmental governance; environmental impact assessment; hydropower development; river basin organization; Mekong (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:33:y:2015:i:1:p:199-217

DOI: 10.1068/c11191

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