Last Days of the Mighty Mekong

Last Days of the Mighty Mekong by Brian Eyler

This is somewhat similar to A River at the Center of the World. In both, the author explores the distance of a major Asian river. This book starts from the Tibetan headwaters and works its way down to the Vietnamese delta. The writing is not as good as that of the other book on the Yangtze. This book also suffers from having an "agenda". It is looking at "last days" of the river, so it focuses more on the sentimental past and things that have changed, rather than giving a general view of the river.

Things have changed a lot. Even the "isolated village" at he start that was only accessible by hiking is now accessed primarily via jeeps. Downriver, people have sought to harness the river via many dams. This has provided huge amounts of electrical capacity - much of which exceeds demand. It has also reduced sediment flow and fisheries in the river. The Chinese and the French are the primary "bad guys" here. They have both attempted the technological march forward (either now or a century ago.) The result has impacted the way of life and made things more difficult. Today, Laos has a fancy railroad through unforgiving land to China. Vietnamese are working in factories rather than fishing and farming in the delta. Attempts to improve productivity through technology have not gone well. The progress of technology has provided some benefits, but also a lot of harm.