By Joshua Klemm, Co-Executive Director, International Rivers As world leaders gather this week in Washington, DC for the World Bank’s Annual Meetings, over 100 civil society organizations are raising the alarm over the World Bank’s plans to lend billions of dollars for ill-conceived and destructive megadams around the world. A …
Since 2013 hydropower installation decreased 9-fold (this statistics includes any conventional hydropower and does not include pumped storage) Electricity from newly built hydropower in 2023 was 30% more expensive than from photovoltaic solar power, while its construction is 3.7 times more expensive. It is also 70% more expensive than electricity …
The Kariba Reservoir on Zambezi River shared by Zimabawe and Zambia has long suffered from the lack of water and threatened to leave population without electricity. It finally happened in 2024, when the biggest reservoir in the world holding 185 cubic kilometers of water, pactically stopped generating any meaningful amount …
As Russian Government is dreaming to restore Soviet Union it seeks to revive most bizarre and harmful infrastructure projects conceived and even partly built during the XX century. Some of those are large dams on still free flowing rivers. Even now, when civil freedoms are suppressed and punished, local activists …
In March 2024 17 civil society groups sent an appeal to the World Bank and 10 more international banks and funds urging them to rethink approach to the Rogun Hydro in Tajikistan. After 40 days of silence The World Bank issued a detailed response which, instead of answering specific questions …
Hydropower issues in the IEA report on “Reducing Cost of Capital” The International Energy Agency issued an interesting report on reducing the cost of capital for “clean energy”, including hydropower. The Rivers without Boundaries considers it a timely publication in the era of rising interest rates, and is happy to …
