Impounded rivers, compounded injustice: contesting the social impacts of hydraulic development in Laos

Laos has rapidly expanded its hydraulic infrastructure, creating profound environmental, economic and social ruptures. We combine frameworks of environmental justice with political ecology to examine the multiple expressions of water injustice evident in three hydropower project case studies involvi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of water resources development Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 130 - 151
Main Authors Blake, David J. H., Barney, Keith
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Guildford Routledge 02.01.2022
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Case studies
Coercivity
dam-induced displacement
Economics
Environmental justice
Governance
Human rights
Hydraulic infrastructure development
Hydroelectric power
Injustice
Laos
livelihoods
Political ecology
Poverty
Relocation
Resettlement
Restoration
Rivers
Social justice
Water
Water governance
water injustice
Water policy
Laos
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Summary:Laos has rapidly expanded its hydraulic infrastructure, creating profound environmental, economic and social ruptures. We combine frameworks of environmental justice with political ecology to examine the multiple expressions of water injustice evident in three hydropower project case studies involving resettlement. We find that livelihood restoration measures have not ameliorated, but reproduced underlying problems of poverty, inequity, exclusion and coercive expressions of social injustice. These are viewed as the structural outcomes of political choices. We conclude that there is little potential for a water justice paradigm in Laos without significant reforms to the national frameworks for water governance and human rights.
ISSN:0790-0627
1360-0648
DOI:10.1080/07900627.2021.1920373