Lori Pottinger's blog

In a reversal of the animated movie Madagascar, all of the world's Kihansi spray toads suddenly found themselves living in the Bronx Zoo, far from their home at the base of a waterfall in Tanzania. The tiny toads were no match for a dam that destroyed not only their life in the wild, but a beautiful waterfall too. "Maybe the story will have a happy ending," The New York Times wistfully mused.

The UN has declared 2010 the Year of Biodiversity as a wake up call on the state of the planet's endangered plants and animals. "The latest data from scientists indicates to us that the loss of species is occurring at anywhere between 100-1000 times faster than has traditionally been the case," says Achim Steiner, head of UNEP.

A new short documentary by the Dutch group BothEnds offers a clear, concise "you are there" view of problems being caused by the Bujagali Dam, now being built on the Nile River in Uganda. This well-done piece of activist filmmaking shows the viewer firsthand what is at stake in this controversial project. You'll see what the dam will flood, visit a village forced to move for the project, hear from Ugandans who hope their businesses can afford the project's costly electricity, and see the beautiful Bujagali Falls themselves – soon to be submerged by the dam. People on both sides of the debate give thoughtful commentary on key issues – all against the backdrop of the mighty Nile.

The video comes at a time when activists in Europe and Uganda have teamed up to call the European Investment Bank (EIB) to task for its role in the controversial project. A team from the EIB will visit Uganda next week to investigate the complaint, lodged by Uganda's preeminent

NAPE staff and Terri Hathaway (Int. Rivers), Uganda

environmental group, the National Association of Professional Environmentalists, or NAPE. This is the third such official complaint about the project by the group, which also lodged complaints with the World Bank and African Development Bank. Although these institutions' investigators substantiated key concerns raised by NAPE, the banks have taken few steps to resolve the problems. It seems they see their independent "inspection panels" as little more than suggestion boxes. Perhaps the third time will be the charm for these dogged activists.

avatar

China has pulled the 2D version of the blockbuster hit, Avatar, from the big screen in what is being billed as cinematic protectionism -- reportedly, to keep its theaters focused on showing a new state-sponsored biopic about Confucius. But many believe there is another side to the story.

It’s been a bad week for dams – and a very good one for the world’s rivers.

Save the Mary: Victory!

In Queensland, Australia, river protectors thrilled to the news today that their long fight to Save the Mary River from the ravages of a large dam is, finally, over. The nation’s Environment Minister announced the rejection of the proposed Traveston Dam due to its ''unacceptable impacts on matters of national environment significance.''

The river-endangering dam would likely have killed off a few endangered species (including a lungfish species that has been around since the dinosaurs roamed the earth), flooded farmland, and dewatered the river for miles. The Sydney Morning Herald said, “By stopping the dam, experts said, [Peter] Garrett had made the biggest decision by an environment minister in 10 years of national environment laws.” Residents of the Mary Valley, 160 kilometres north of Brisbane, had for three years fought the dam with everything they had – from horseback protests to long-distance canoe trips to a widespread grassroots PR campaign that saw every fence post and farm building in the Mary River valley sporting signs to Save the Mary.

Cahora Bassa power lines bypass Zambezi villagers (Lori Pottinger)

The world is greening its electricity supply at a fast (if not fast enough) pace. Germany is slapping solar on every building it can, Spain is becoming a world leader in big concentrating solar plants, and the US stimulus package includes a plateload of subsidies for renewables. At the same time, the price of solar technologies have fallen 35% since last year, and new breakthroughs in storing energy from the sun and wind appear to be on the cusp.

More evidence that dams really are a dirty business

Muddy waters of the Tekeze River, Ethiopia

The world could see an epidemic of “Hurricane Katrina” destruction from storms if dam builders persist in bottling up more rivers. Most of the world’s major river deltas are sinking, thanks in large part to dams withholding land-building sediments, a new scientific study reveals. The authors estimate that the subsidence is increasing flood risk for half a billion people.

Hundreds of scientists from dozens of federal labs and universities around the US were involved in the study, which looked at 33 major deltas (24 of which were found to be sinking).

Kenyans have more freedom to protest Gibe 3 Dam than Ethiopians. (Photo courtesy Friends of Lake Turkana)

We recently received the good news that the African Development Bank’s independent investigative unit (known as the CRMU) registered our request to investigate problems on the Gibe 3 Dam in Ethiopia. Investigations by the CRMU and the similar World Bank Inspection Panel are just about the only way that project-affected people can get recourse for problems caused by Bank-supported big dams and other infrastructure projects. Although we at International Rivers are not directly affected, our request was meant to supplement a claim on the project made by people who will be affected in downstream Kenya by the huge dam. Ethiopian villagers were, we knew, in no position to make a claim against the government-led project.

With all the controversy over Ethiopia’s Gibe 3 Dam – which has stirred up negative coverage from the BBC to the East African Standard – it’s easy to forget that a greener energy future for Ethiopia is possible, and that some positive steps are being taken to get there.

Ethiopia is rich in clean renewable resources – some of the best on the continent. Developing its abundance of geothermal, wind and solar reserves could make it a green-energy leader among African nations, rather than the dam-nation it is fast becoming.

Desertification of African soil

Africa is the least electrified place in the world, with just a fraction of its citizens benefiting from the miracle of electricity. Solving this huge problem is made more difficult by widespread poverty, poor governance, and because a large majority of Africa's people live far from the grid, which greatly adds to the cost of bringing electricity to them.