ABSTRACT
People's rights to access water resources and secure their livelihoods in the Mekong region are being undermined by inappropriate development strategies and discourses that privilege economic growth and development over wider social welfare needs. Development of water resources infrastructure is being pursued for hydropower, irrigation and industrial uses that has not adequately taken into account impacts on the environment or small-scale water users, in particular, fishers, riparian and upland farmers. As a consequence, these social groups are likely to become even more vulnerable despite living in countries whose economies are growing and where aggregate well-being is otherwise improving. This socially unjust and disproportionate allocation of costs, risks and burdens arise for many reasons, and the chapters in this book underline several.
