On 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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Court dismissal of Xayaburi dam lawsuit highlights the need to strengthen accountability of cross-border investments
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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International Hydropower Association’s Greenwashing of Nam Theun 2 Dam’s Impacts on Indigenous Peoples
by Bruce Shoemaker and Ian G. Baird A newly released article by the International Hydropower Association (IHA), titled “Laos: Hydropower built in consultation with Indigenous communities” by Eduard Wojczynski, holds up the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) hydropower project as a positive example of benefit-sharing for Indigenous communities. The article is presented as a case study…
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PRESS RELEASE | COP26: UN human rights experts highlight continued human rights impacts of dams as civil society, Indigenous leaders call for UN climate financing mechanisms to exclude hydropower
For Immediate Release: November 9, 2021 For Spanish: https://intlrv.rs/3C4CUOS For Portuguese: https://intlrv.rs/3qoyD6A Glasgow, Scotland – As negotiators convened at COP26 in Glasgow attempt to break the deadlock on emissions cuts and financing mechanisms, a diverse set of voices are calling for the UNFCCC to exclude hydropower from consideration, citing dams’ grave human rights and climate…
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PRESS RELEASE | New Report: Biodiversity loss driven by world’s largest dam builders poses a major challenge for China’s global biodiversity footprint
For Immediate Release: October 13, 2021 Contacts: Josh Klemm, Policy Director, International Rivers/Report Author, +1 202 492 8904 jklemm@internationalrivers.org Bonnie Barclay, Communications Manager, International Rivers, +1 323 363 4874, bbarclay@internationalrivers.org Oakland, CA – International Rivers today published a report calling attention to the need for the world’s largest dam building companies to take urgent steps…
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Statement | IHA Sustainability Prize Illustrates A Disconnect with Reality and Continued Greenwashing of Dams
Yesterday, during its biennial World Hydropower Congress, the International Hydropower Association (IHA) awarded its “Blue Planet” prize for sustainability to the Teesta-V hydropower project in India, noting it “met or exceeded” good practice in its assessment against the IHA’s own sustainability tools. International Rivers responded that Teesta-V is a highly problematic project that has engendered…
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STATEMENT | Climate Bonds Initiative’s new hydropower standard is a false climate solution
Last week, the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) announced their approval of a new bond certification scheme for hydropower.1 This represents an unfortunate setback for the climate and for meaningful efforts to address the climate crisis. As our written submissions into the process pointed out,2 the CBI hydropower standard will generate no tangible climate benefit and…
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Damming Rivers Is Terrible for Human Rights, Ecosystems, and Food Security
By: Deborah Moore, International Rivers Board Member Darryl Knudsen, Executive Director Michael Simon, former Senior Director of Strategy This article was originally featured on Truthout There’s some good news amid the grim global pandemic: At long last, the world’s largest dam removal is finally happening. The landmark agreement, which was finalized in November 2020 between farmers, tribes and…
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PRESS RELEASE | South Africa and DRC plan to press ahead with Inga 3 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Democratic Republic of Congo has just concluded a week-long conference on the beleaguered Grand Inga Dam Project, restating the commitment from South Africa to purchase 5000MW of electricity from the proposed project. Meanwhile, back home the SA Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy is reported to be pressing ahead with their…
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For Hasankeyf the Bell Tolls
Guest blog by Gokce Sencan Gokce Sencan, a Turkish water policy researcher based in California, shares the experience from her recent visit to the ancient town of Hasankeyf along the Tigris River in southeastern Turkey. Hasankeyf, which has been continuously inhabited for the last 12,000 years, is slowly being drowned as the reservoir behind the…
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JOINT STATEMENT | One year after Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy dam collapse, civil society from Korea and the Mekong call for immediate accountability and redress
One year ago today, on 23 July 2018, Saddle Dam of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower project in Attapeu Province, Laos, collapsed. The dam collapse unleashed a disaster with transboundary implications in which dozens of people were killed and thousands of residents were driven from their homes. We offer our thoughts and prayers for the 49…
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