The Mekong is already heavily dammed, with many more dams planned and under construction, mostly for generating hydropower. China built ten or eleven cascade dams on the Mekong mainstream between 1995 and mid-2019, leaving Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand without same amount of water as before investment. China, Laos and Cambodia are planning and/or building more. The Mekong is the fastest growing large river basin in the world in terms of hydropower construction. The Lao Government is aiming to lift the nation out of poverty by making it "the battery of Asia".