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 …
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 …
We are getting used to it: “No one was killed, we are happy” –became a standard reaction to “better” incidents at large-scale dams which are on the rise this year. So far in 2018 just on the RwB’s record large dam accidents happened in China, Colombia, Kenya, Laos, Myanmar, Russia. …
Greed, corruption and vanity – are main driving forces not letting large dams to sink despite the obvious fact they no longer make economic sense. New brilliant article in Yale 360 proves that. The rise of wind and solar power, coupled with the increasing social, environmental and financial costs of …
There is a new evidence the IFC does not apply its own standards properly and this has implications for any hydropower projects they support. In a recent IFC CAO Ombudsman newsletter I have found investigation report on Lengarica Hydro in Albania that raises multiple concerns. A small inherently inefficient 8 …
Dam collapse Did NOT stop dams in Laos The July collapse of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy saddle dam in southern Laos and the widespread disaster that followed made international headlines. Shortly after the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy collapse displaced thousands and claimed at least 40 lives, the Mekong River Commission called the …
