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.