Co-published with Rivers without Boundaries, Coalition for Human Rights in Development and other partners Today on the 27th International Day of Action for Rivers, international and local civil society organizations (CSOs) share the appeal they sent to the World Bank and 15 other financiers – members of the “Rogun Coordination Group”. In Tajikistan, the government is…
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Français below English and French versions of the guide can be found in the Safeguards and Standards section of the Capacity Building Tool Resources page. Development projects such as dams, roads, power plants, and mines can displace communities and damage the land and rivers that they need for their livelihoods. Over the past decades, communities…
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French below/ Version Française plus bas Only one-third of rivers remain free-flowing, largely due to dams. Globally, large hydropower dams have displaced up to 80 million people and compromised the livelihoods of 472 million more downstream. Although dams are on the decline in most parts of the world, in Africa, there is an incline in planned…
Read MoreOn September 13, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, or EGAT, signed a Power Purchase Agreement for the controversial Pak Beng Dam on the main stem of the Mekong River. Located in northern Lao PDR, Pak Beng would be built on the Lower Mekong mainstream and is expected to displace people in over 25 villages….
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By: Josh Klemm, Co-Executive Director of International Rivers Earlier this month, I had the chance to attend the fourth annual Finance in Common (FIC) Summit in Cartagena, Colombia. A relatively new phenomenon, the Summit brought together over 500 public development banks from all over the world who together represent tens of billions of dollars in…
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Originally Published in The New York Times by Josh Klemm and Isabella Winkler Mr. Klemm and Ms. Winkler are co-directors of International Rivers, a group that advocates for healthy rivers and the rights of river communities. The collapse of two dams in Libya, unleashing torrential floodwaters that left at least 3,000 people dead and over 4,200 still missing, was both…
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By Josh Klemm, International Rivers Co-Director and Oleksii Vasyliuk, co-founder Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (UNCG). Originally published in the EU Observer. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydropower dam has precipitated the manmade disaster unfolding in Ukraine, the impacts of which will be experienced by the environment and people for generations to come. Dams must not be…
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Today, October 3rd, a civil society group published and sent a letter to The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and relevant government agencies calling for a careful evaluation of Brazil’s climate and environmental policies, processes, and track records. The letter also highlights the necessity for strong due diligence, including third-party assessments, independent reviews, and…
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International Rivers joins 23 organizations delivering a letter addressed to Richard Martínez Alvarado, Vice President of theCountries Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) This week, 24 civil society organizations(CSOs) raised concerns about the consultation process designed for IDB’s Access to Information Policy (AIP) review. In the letter, addressed to the Vice President for Countries of the Inter-American…
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By Phairin Sohsai and Gary Lee On 17 August, the Thai Supreme Administrative Court ruled to dismiss a lawsuit, filed by 37 Thai villagers against five Thai state agencies for their role in approving the Xayaburi hydropower dam’s Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Filed 10 years ago, the Xayaburi lawsuit was the first community-filed lawsuit related…
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Originally published in EU Observer by Nicholas Hildyard and Josh Klemm In the early hours of 26 February 2022, Ukrainian air defences shot down a Russian missile reportedly heading for the Kyiv dam on the Dnieper River. The hydropower reservoir behind the dam, which Russian forces had unsuccessfully attempted to seize on the first day…
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