TY - JOUR
T1 - Impounded rivers, compounded injustice: contesting the social impacts of hydraulic development in Laos
AU - Blake, David J H
AU - Barney, Keith
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
U2 - 10.1080/07900627.2021.1920373
DO - 10.1080/07900627.2021.1920373
M3 - Article
SN - 0790-0627
VL - 38
SP - 130
EP - 151
JO - International Journal of Water Resources Development
JF - International Journal of Water Resources Development
IS - 1
ER -