Book chapter with Nguyen Quy Hanh and Lam Thi Thu Suu (2016)

Construction of hydropower plants derives from the common human desire to use technology to control and prevent water flowing to the sea, and to develop energy for human development.  Hydropower development projects must above all acknowledge the rights of the communities affected by hydropower and promote their sustainable development. Hydropower resettlement can not be simplified into compensation and physical relocation, but must include the sunken part of the iceberg – issues of sustainable livelihood, culture, and society, linked by a chain of natural and social relations.  The research provides a comprehensive model of resettlement, which shows that hydropower development can only be truly sustainable when the focus is on the sunken part of the iceberg.