Water Rights and Social Justice in the Mekong Region

This book reviews the issues faced by people living in the Mekong River region, in South East Asia, who are increasingly being marginalized and under-represented by the big businesses, planners and politicians--the powerful elite--influencing and deciding the trajectories of development in the region. It also shows how complex human- and nature-induced developments in the Mekong Region are increasingly widening existing gaps in wealth, resource access and power. Fair and equal fields for decision-making and governance are needed to strengthen not only the rights but also the resilience of vulnerable groups and communities against uncertainty, particularly for climate-related changes. The authors show how vitally important it is that water governance is democratized to allow a more equitable sharing of water resources and counteract the pressures of economic growth.

Kate Lazarus is a water governance specialist with the Mekong Program on Water Environment and Resilience (M-POWER) and the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), Lao PDR. Nathan Badenoch is an Associate Professor at Kyoto University's Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Japan. Nga Dao is co-founder and director of the Center for Water Resources Conservation and Development {WARECOD) in Vietnam and a PhD student in human geography at York University, Canada. Bernadette P. Resurreccion is Associate Professor in Gender Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources Development at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.