The Dark Side Behind the Light From Small Hydropower
Explore the hidden environmental and social costs of small hydropower in Vietnam and the urgent need for fairer water sharing.
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One of the areas affected by the operation of the hydropower dam. Photo: Kieu Mai
Produced by the MTT media-research collaboration fellowships 2025, this article examines the negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of small hydropower projects, particularly on downstream communities, and advocates for fairer water resource sharing and more effective mitigation mechanisms.
One of the areas affected by the operation of the hydropower dam. Photo: Kieu Mai
The article discusses the negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of small hydropower, such as Vietnam’s Xoong Con plant. Downstream communities face issues like drought, crop failure, declining aquatic resources, and bank erosion, causing poverty or temporary migration. It also calls for action from government, local authorities, and developers to improve water sharing, provide timely disaster information, and support livelihood conversion for a fairer energy transition and sustainable development.
This story was written by Kieu Mai as a part of MTT media-research collaboration fellowship and was published in TheLEADER: Khoảng tối sau ánh sáng từ thủy điện nhỏ
MTT media-research collaboration fellowship
In January 2025, SEI’s Mekong Thought Leadership and Think Tanks Network Program (MTT) awarded six “media-research collaboration fellowships”, each worth up to US$ 3,400 (AUD 5,000), to selected journalists and multimedia producers from the countries of the Mekong Region for environmental reporting.
During the fellowship from January to December 2025, the media grantees have produced a range of stories, blogs, and short films on diverse environmental issues in the Mekong Region. The outputs were produced in collaboration with the MTT-affiliated researchers in the Mekong Region. The media grantees also organized a series of trainings and collaborative learning sessions for the MTT researchers in order to build the researchers’ capacity in multimedia and media engagement.
The media-research partnership fund is coordinated by SEI Asia with the generous support of DFAT, Government of Australia.
