The Mekong River. Photo: tashandsmoked(flickr)

Before it reaches the sea, the Mekong River travels more than 2,500 miles through Tibet, China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is estimated that more than 60 million people depend on the river in some way. But the dams are changing the river and impacting the people who depend on it.

For better or worse, four dams are already in place and 11 are on their way, most of which will be in China.

China is working to reduce their dependence on coal, and get more power from renewable sources like hydroelectricity, according to IRIN, the UN news agency, which reports that "governments downstream claim the hydroelectric dams will cut electricity costs."

The dams currently generate over 3,000 megawatts of electricity, says Radio Free Asia. A Portland General Electric representative told me that's enough electricity to power a city about the size of Portland, Oregon — with a population of 575,000 people — for an entire year.

Besides energy, the dams also help to regulate the rivers flow. As IRIN reports, supporters are saying this is a pretty impressive perk, since the region's unpredictable rains often times cause a flood or drought.

But others, including locals, don't think so highly of the dams.

According to the Foundation for Ecological Recovery, the river's fishing industry alone is worth up to $3 billion annually, and the existing dams are already decreasing that profit. Mekong fisherman Ouy Chai tells Al Jazeera that "before you could catch 10-20 fish in one day and now you can fish all week and not catch anything." His wife says, "I'm scared. What will be left for our children and grandchildren to eat?"

In the same vein, many environmentalists are saying that the dams are harsh on the environment, causing erosion and harming biodiversity. Nguyen Huu Chien, head of the environment and natural resource management program at Can Tho University, tells Radio Free Asia that "it is like a blood vessel in the human body. When we build dams, it is like a blockage in the veins: it will definitely affect other areas."

Despite the protesting and petitioning efforts of those against the dams, IRIN reports that two new ones are currently underway.

Rice is incredibly important for delta communities. Photo: Jeremy Barnicle/Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps has started an agency blog to give a glimpse into the work, thoughts and ideas of our team around the world. Here's a post I wrote yesterday that is really appropriate for Global Envision.

Farming communities in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta have always followed a cycle of debt. Each year, wealthy land owners would lend farmers money, tools and cattle needed to till the soil. After the harvest, the debt is repayed and the cycle continues.

Farming is important for delta communities. The Irrawaddy Delta produces more rice than any other region in the country. Nearly everyone is employed through rice production or the fishing industry.

So when Cyclone Nargis hit the delta about a year ago, the storm not only destroyed homes, fishing boats and agricultural fields, it destroyed livelihoods.

Nargis was the worst natural disaster Myanmar has ever experienced and racked up about $4 billion in damage. Some say the damage sustained in the Irrawaddy Delta was as bad as the Indian Ocean tsunami. Emergency aid from the UN, the government and NGOs has helped shelter and feed the thousands of survivors but there's still a lot of recovery work to be done.

Today, farmers looking to start over are caught in an incredibly frustrating situation: the wealthy land owners that used to lend money and tools lost everything as well, so now there is nobody to lend. Without cattle, tools and seeds, the farmers have little chance of ever getting ahead. Adding to the situation, prices for crops are down from past years. This leaves farming communities with few options, therefore trapping them in poverty.

I first learned about this debt trap in the Al Jazeera video below. The situation is so heartbreaking, but also too common in poverty-stricken communities. Mercy Corps has helped more than 7,000 families rebuild their rice paddies in the delta. We've also given more than 25,000 people small grants to help them earn an income, which in turn helps restart the local economy and helps free these communities from the cycle of debt.

An Australian professor says the push to grow crops for biofuels rather than food has worsened the plight of cyclone victims in Myanmar.

Back in 2005, Myanmar's ruling junta required every farmer with an acre of land to plant Jatropha trees on their property. The oil squeezed from the non-edible crop boasts greater yields of oil per acre than other biofuels, with one-fifth the carbon emissions of petroleum-based products. The junta hoped biofuel exports would replace Myanmar's 40,000 barrels per day of petroleum imports and help an economy on the verge of collapse.

Production of biofuels in developing countries has been vigorously supported by industrialized countries. In fact, the International Herald Tribune reports that venture capital investment in biofuels has increased by 800 percent over the past four years.

But in Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, the junta failed to build a refining plant, leaving its citizens with a useless Jatropha crop, setting off a chain reaction that increased food insecurity and fuel prices. Then the cyclone wiped out much of Myanmar's mid-year rice harvest.

Given Myanmar's political, social and economic idiosyncracies, it's certainly not the ideal case study for jatropha or biofuel. But plans to invest billions of dollars in biofuel refineries in neighboring countries have been put on hold, leading to questions about how sustainable the current equilibrium between food and fuel production really is.