Dam Safety
 Leo Caldas/Revista Veja
The catastrophic flooding in Pakistan provides a terrifying warning of how global warming is changing the hydrological cycle. Almost every month seems to bring unprecedented rainstorms and floods somewhere across the world, and their severity and frequency seems to be rapidly worsening. These floods pose a major threat to the world's dams, and to the many millions of people who live below them. Here we report on a few of the worst examples of dam-induced flooding in recent months.
Fri, 07/09/2010 - 10:54am
By: Lilian Alves and Brent Millikan Este post foi escrito pela Estagiária do Programa da Amazônia Lilian Alves e pelo Diretor do Programa da Amazônia Brent Millikan.  Dam burst on Mundaú River, Rio Largo town, in the state of Alagoas (Leo Caldas/Revista Veja) O Nordeste do Brasil é conhecido por seus periódicos episódios de seca, que assolam uma população que já sofre com pobreza extrema, especialmente na região do sertão. No entanto, em junho, o Nordeste brasileiro foi atingido por enchentes arrasadoras, deixando mais de 50 vítimas fatais e uma estimativa de 150,000 desabrigados. O centro da tragédia tem sido as bacias dos rios Mundaú e Paraíba nos estados do Alagoas e Pernambuco, onde uma inesperada enchente descomunal, comparada a um tsunami por pessoas da região, devastou cidades, fazendas, pontes e até fábricas. Na cidade de Branquinha, AL, estima-se que 80% das residências foram destruídas.
 Leo Caldas/Revista Veja
Tue, 07/06/2010 - 1:32pm
By: Lilian Alves and Brent Millikan This is a guest blog by Amazon Program Intern Lilian Alves and Amazon Program Director Brent Millikan. Dam burst on Mundaú River, Rio Largo town, in the state of Alagoas (Leo Caldas/Revista Veja) The Northeast of Brazil is well-known for its periodic episodes of severe drought that cause particular hardship for those already suffering from extreme poverty, especially in the region's backlands (sertão). Last month, however, the Northeast was hit by devastating floods, where over fifty people were killed and an estimated 150,000 were left homeless. The center of the tragedy has been the Mundaú and Paraíba river basins in the states of Alagoas and Pernambuco, where sudden massive flooding, likened by local observers to a tsunami, devastated towns, farms, bridges and even factories. In the town of Branquinha (Alagoas), an estimated 80% of residential housing was destroyed.
Thu, 06/03/2010 - 9:44am
 BP Oil Spill, Gulf of Mexico, 2010 (NASA) As BP's Gulf oil spill is so tragically demonstrating, once the cows are out of the barn and the oil is out of the well, it's too late to come up with a disaster response plan.
 On April 14, 2010, an earthquake measuring at 7.1 (6.9 according to the US Geological Survey) struck Yushu County in the largely Tibetan area of Qinhai Province. The tremor, whose epicenter lies near the high mountain town of Jiegu in Yushu County on the Qinghai Plateau, killed 1,700 people and seriously injured 11,000.
International Rivers
Media Advisory
Another terrible earthquake has struck China. The 7.1 tremor with an epicenter near Jiegu in Yushu County on the Qinghai Plateau has killed at least 400 people. According to Chinese news reports, the Changu (or Thrangu in Tibetan) hydropower dam was damaged by the earthquake, and is "at the risk of collapse at any time." The Changu (Thrangu) Project is located upstream of the county seat, Jiegu, and is clearly visible on Google Earth. If the dam breaks, it would endanger the lives of more than 100,000 people living downstream. International Rivers' thoughts are with the families of the victims, the rescue teams, the Chinese people and the authorities.
Mon, 01/25/2010 - 12:06pm
 Three Gorges resettlers (Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum) "Battling with heaven is endless joy, fighting with the earth is endless joy, and struggling with humanity is endless joy," Mao Zedong once proclaimed. The Three Gorges Dam, which the great helmsman had conjured in one of his poems, is one of the manifestations of this philosophy. Nature inevitably strikes back against those who fight it. In the case of the Three Gorges Dam, we just learned that at least 300,000 more people need to displaced so that the environmental impacts can be kept under control.
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