FILE: Laos villagers displaced to make way for dam construction Mountainous and landlocked Laos, known as the "Battery of Asia", is building dozens of dams at breakneck speed so it can sell energy to power-hungry neighbours as a fast track out of poverty. But the communist country's ambitious power plans are highly controversial and often require compulsory resettlement of hundreds of villages and reshape the landscape and river systems. FILE IMAGES of Nam Tha dam construction in 2016