Damming the Salween River

The Nu-Salween River ¹ is one of Asia’s principal rivers, the source of livelihood for an estimated 6 million people in China, Myanmar/Burma and Thailand (IUCN et al, 2003). The mountains and valleys of the watershed are home to some of the most culturally and biologically diverse areas of the world. Over its 2800km course the river drops some 5000m, much of that in steep gorges, making the Nu-Salween extremely attractive from a hydropower development perspective (Magee, 2006b). Until recently, the remoteness and lack of basic infrastructure throughout much of its watershed made such development technically and economically infeasible.