This book succinctly describes how a large hydro dam in a poor country with weak capacity was successfully prepared by a truly global development and financial partnership, by turning the natural resource curse on its head and tapping the state of the art to mitigate environmental and social impacts.

The water resources of the Mekong river catchment area, from China, through Thailand, Cambodia and Laos to Vietnam, are increasingly contested. Governments, companies and banks are driving new investment in roads, dams, diversions, irrigation schemes, navigation facilities, power plants and other emblems of conventional "development." Their plans and interventions pose multiple burdens and risks to the livelihoods of millions of people dependent on wetlands, floodplains, fisheries and aquatic resources.

The AQUASTAT Programme was initiated with a view to presenting a comprehensive picture of water resources and irrigation in the countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and providing systematic, up-to-date and reliable information on water for agriculture and rural development. This report presents the results of the most recent survey carried out in the 22 countries of the Southern and Eastern Asia region, and it analyzes the changes that have occurred in the ten years since the first survey. Following the AQUASTAT methodology, the survey relied as much as possible on country-based statistics and information.