When there is too much, yet too little of the Nam Ou left: an everyday geography of water in northern Laos

Keywords: Mekong River/Nam Ou River; Lao PDR; hydrosocial change; development; everyday geography, water resources
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 52

Abstract

With multiple stretches of the Mekong river network either already dammed or planned to be dammed for electricity production, there is an increasing need to better understand the place-specific implications of and responses to such intense hydrosocial transformations. In addressing this need, this paper discusses narratives made by the residents from two riverine villages in northern Laos, who have experienced the frontline effects of the recently dammed Nam Ou, a significant tributary of the transboundary Mekong. Oriented by the residents' accounts of the changing river, i.e. the shrinking of cultivable land due to the intermittent flooding of riverbanks and the disappearance of locally valued riverine plants and animals due to changes in the river's seasonal patterns, I illustrate how, since the arrival of the cascade dam project through 2012-2020, there had been simultaneously too much, yet too little of the Nam Ou left. In making these observations, I suggest that (trans)national efforts to create an abundance of water resources in northern Laos has, for the residents, produced a scarcity of the Nam Ou and the livelihood spaces they assembled in relation to the river's seasonality and biodiversity. Ultimately, this grounded account of the Nam Ou's hydraulic development makes visible the intended and unintended consequences of the predominantly water-centred approaches to developing and planning rivers in Laos and the broader Mekong region.