Arte - Rivers of the World (2009) 2 Mekong

Rivers are an essential source of life and food. The world's greatest cities have risen and fallen along their banks. They can be passages of commerce or crusade, untamed natural forces or generous energy suppliers. Rivers of the World is a beautifully shot series exploring the most spectacular rivers of the planet across all five continents. The names alone possess a legendary resonance - Niger, Okavango, Mekong, Urubamba, Colorado, Orinoco, and Nile. The great geographical diversity embodied by all these rivers is explored along with the people who live on and from these waters and who devote themselves to their protection. Long may they continue to flow.

Part 2: Mekong
The Mekong is one of the world's last great mother rivers. Emerging from the Himalayas, it zigzags across China and Southern Asia, passing through the immense lake of Tonle Sap in Cambodia, near Angkor Wat, and around the four thousand islands of Si Phan Donh in Laos. Rice, trade, fishing - the very life of these regions depends on the Mekong.