The Dachaoshan dam in China’s Yunnan Province is one of the 11 dams that Beijing built along the tributaries of the Mekong river, a source of food and livelihood for millions of people downstream in Southeast Asia [File: Eugene Hoshiko/AP] Southeast Asian countries would have likely experienced a much less severe drought last year if it were not for China’s dams , a new study says, prompting a pushback from the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission (MRC). The 4,000-km (2,485-mile) Mekong is one of the world’s longest rivers – winding through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam – and millions of people rely on it daily for food and income. Based on satellite data, water resources monitor Eyes on Earth calculated the Mekong’s water flow stemming from snow-melt, soil moisture, and precipitation. Using information from 1997 to 2001 to compute representative flows under normal conditions, authors Alan Basist and […]