By Rin Sohsai In early October, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC) sent a letter to Thailand’s Prime Minister expressing serious concerns about the plans for four more hydropower projects to be built on the mainstream of the Mekong River near the Thai-Lao territorial border— namely, the Sanakham, Pak Chom, Ban Kum and…
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MAP: Hydropower Dams in Sub-Saharan Africa
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 MoreDeveloping news: Controversial Pak Beng Dam on the Mekong hits major milestone, despite warnings of widespread damage to environment and people
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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The Kakhovka dam disaster — what next?
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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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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Weaponising water — Ukraine’s dams are targets in Putin’s war
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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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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