Interesting media project “My River is Yours” has been posted on the web this week.It is dedicated to local perceptions of transboundary river management –subject largely neglected in North Eurasia. Some RwB experts took part in discussions:

“China has different water-management relations along the border with each one of the countries it shares water with. This ranges from a highly developed, although poorly executed system of agreements with the Russian Federation to a total mess in Southeast Asia with neighbors like Myanmar, where there are no agreements at all,” says …

 
First phase of blasting operation was carried out by military at Bureya Reservoir blocked by landslide  last December.
  This is the site viewed from space on January 21, the day before blasting.
 

This is the first blast on January 22 that took 10 tons of explosives.

The operation attracted a lot of attention from the media.

Head of local Russian Orthodox Church arrived to assist removal of the debris blocking the river.

This is the landslide site on January 23, the day after the blasts…Please, compare with …

 
The International Hydropower Association published a cheerful blog entry showing almost exponential increase in hydropower capacity:

Source: IHA 
“Not long after the turn of the century, hydropower development gained a renewed momentum, particularly across Asia and South America. Between 2000 and 2017, nearly 500 GW in hydropower installed capacity was added worldwide, with growth since 2010 already outstripping that recorded in the first decade of the century.
Developing countries, including Brazil and China, needed an affordable, reliable and a sustainable source of electricity to support rapid economic growth. Since 2000, China has more …

The last year ended up with a  massive landslide blocking hydropower reservoir on Bureya River. Since the RwB reported on the issue last year considerable attention of national authorities and international media was drawn to it. Many politicians have participated in crisis-solving making this somewhat reminiscent of parallel  drama of Hidroituango, where emergency operation was remotely supervised by the new president of Colombia two days ago. The only entity which keeps low profile and has minimal information on its web-sites is the Rushydro State Company which owns the Bureya …

Nepal’s hydropower boom needs strategic assessment and public oversight

Children crossing a bridge across Budhi Gandaki River in Arughat, Nepal (Photo by Eugene Sim0nov)
Prologue: A tale of two dams
In 2017, I visited 1,200 MW Budhi Gandaki hydropower project, 70 kilometers from Kathmandu, and found many similarities with the Egiin Gol hydropower project in Mongolia, long monitored by our RwB Coalition. 
Both projects were designed in the 1970s Soviet-school mega-hydropower planning style, both have not progressed in 40 years. In both cases, the international consultancy Tractebel Engineering proposed to increase dam height …

In 2018 at least 126 Colombian human rights activists have been killed according to Frontline Defender’s report, some of those killings are related  to the valley of Cauca River   altered by the Hidroituango hydropower project. Over last several years many activists protesting dam establishment  disappeared or have been killed by dam proponents. 
Since April 2018 this project is also haunted by tremendous engineering challenges due to landslides and mistakes in design which brought construction to a halt. Up to 25 000 people were placed under threat of imminent flooding …