The local mayor wanted to build a large dam and tunnel to tap another watershed.

ECONOMIST: Private passions

One is that without a large dam or reservoir, there is no way to store energy and adjust power output according to peak periods of consumer demand.

FORBES: Hydroelectric Revolution: A River Runs Through It

Some analysts in Srinagar talk of over 60 dam projects, large and small, now on the books.

ECONOMIST: South Asia��s water

According to the International Rivers Network, an anti-dam group, some 100 large dams are proposed for the Mekong basin.

ECONOMIST: The Mekong river

Closer to the dam, college students from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point caught one sturgeon after another in large nets on long metal poles and wrestled them to shore, where state officials took down the lengths of the fish and inserted electronic tags under the skin of any sturgeon that didn't already have one.

WSJ: Standing Guard for the Sturgeon