China has already built six mega-dams on the Mekong – the lifeblood for continental Southeast Asia – with its latest addition being the 254-meter-high Nuozhadu Dam, whose gargantuan reservoir is designed to hold nearly 22 billion cubic meters of water. The current dam-building plans threaten the Salween River’s Grand Canyon – a UNESCO World Heritage site – and the pristine, environmentally sensitive areas through which the Brahmaputra and the Mekong flow.
在新批准的多个大坝项目中，有五个位于怒江，三个位于雅鲁藏布江，两个位于澜沧江。中国已在澜沧江——东南亚的生命河——建设了六个巨坝，最新建成的254米高的糯扎渡大坝，其所形成的水库设计容量近220立方米。目前的建坝计划将威胁到联合国世界遗产怒江大峡谷以及雅鲁藏布江和澜沧江流域环境脆弱的原生态区域。