Laotians and Thais who depend on the Mekong River for life’s necessities — food, water, income — fear the mighty waterway may be drying up. They say climate change may be a factor in recent droughts in the region, but believe the direct cause of their troubles are the many dams China and Laos have built upstream that siphon off water for agricultural and other uses before it reaches them. Experts say the dams make the impact of periodic droughts in the Mekong basin worse and rob the river of the “pulse effect” that spreads water and nutrients that support fisheries and farming.
