Starting in the Tibetan Plateau, the Mekong runs from the sacred Himalayan mountains through the Yunnan province of China into parts of Myanmar. It outlines where the top of Thailand meets Laos and Cambodia before exiting into the South China Sea through Vietnam. Embankments of varying sand deposits sit on the banks of the river. The mineral-heavy waters give the river its rich brown and purple hues and its sustenance, making it home for hundreds of species of fish. As the main and very complex river that runs through Southeast Asia, the Mekong has long been a medium for many interpretations, including a medium for division, serving as parts of the border which separates Laos from Thailand; a medium for control, as a lightning rod for ideological projects; a medium for logistics, for boat transportation and the distribution of goods and people; and a medium for resources, for extracting gold or water, to name only a few.

But despite well-established attempts to bring the river under control, since the 1990s, the flood pulse of Southeast Asia's main river has drastically gone rogue. The river and its tributaries are now punctuated by hundreds of dams built in China and Laos; water levels fluctuate downstream in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam as a result. Plans for a regional homogenized energy grid stipulate the construction of eleven new hydroelectric dams along the river's main course. Most of these dams are projected to be built in Laos, a landlocked country that has vouched to become the ‘battery of Southeast Asia,’exporting “clean energy” to wealthier regional countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and China.