By Ayesha DSouza, South Asia Program Coordinator. Mega Hydropower projects continue to be pushed in the fragile Indian Himalayas, often at the cost of the local communities and disguised as the only solution to local issues of development. One such place is Dzongu, the land of the Lepcha community in North Sikkim. Already home to…
Read More
By Ayesha DSouza, South Asia Program Coordinator One of the most visible things one sees when travelling from Siliguri in West Bengal up the winding roads to Northern Sikkim are huge streaks down the sides of the mountains. You can clearly see them sliding all the way to the River Teesta. These streaks or scratches…
Read More
By Nalori Chakma, South Asia Senior Programme Coordinator, Transboundary Rivers of South Asia The brief on Sustainable Energy for all: making a case for community-scale micro-hydro as the solution (2021) highlights the importance of community-led energy systems, with focus on micro hydro. It gives detailed recommendations on micro hydro power and how communities can lead…
Read More
Powered by Canadian, Ecuadorian, Spanish and Swiss investors, the São José del Tambo dam (Hidrotambo S.A.) is considered a rudimentary and dangerously built hydro project and has been threatening the lives and livelihoods of over 140 communities along Dulcepamba River. On February 1st, an appeals hearing will be held in the Provincial Court of Tungurahua…
Read More
by Petro Kotze and Nalori Chakma Connecting to riverine communities gave direction to her career Globally, young activists have increasingly taken a stand calling for social change. Zerin Ahmed is one of those inspiring young leaders. The 25-year-old activist and educator is based in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, where she promotes environmental education and…
Read More
by Petro Kotze and Nalori Chakma She found her roots by the river “I have been on a rollercoaster journey of discovery about my land and identity,” Rummit Lepcha says of her mission to reconnect with her roots and help save her home. Rummit is a member of the Lepcha community, and lives in her…
Read More
By Petro Kotze and Nalori Chakma Once an ‘unseen’ person, she now helps ensure her community does not disappear When I was born, my father tied my umbilical cord around a tree in the forest, says Mueda Nawanat. Mueda is from the Ban Tha Rua village in Thailand’s Sob Moei District in the Mae Hong…
Read More
From International Rivers Latin America Team The worst dam disaster in the world in the last decade. This January 25, 2022 marks three years since the collapse of the Córrego do Feijão tailings dam, in Brumadinho, Brazilian city. Check the exclusive Photo Gallery that International Rivers and MAB (Movement Of People Affected by Dams –…
Read More
By Petro Kotze She fights for the survival of the only place she belongs Some people already consider the Lepchas to be a vanishing tribe, says Marmit Lepcha, a Lepcha from Dzongu, in India’s North Sikkim region but, “this is where I belong.” I only understood this once I was away from my home, the…
Read More
International Rivers, Brazilian Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), Pará’s Society in Defense of Human Rights (SDDH) and several other national and international organizations condemns and internationally denounces the brutal murder environmental defenders family in the Xingu region, Brazil. Last Sunday, the bodies of José Gomes (also known as Zé do Lago), his wife Márcia Nunes and…
Read More
Originally published in Bangkok Tribune News By Phairin Sohsai, the Thai-Mekong Campaign Coordinator for International Rivers and Sayan Chuenudomsavad, a documentary photographer residing in Bangkok, Thailand. Diverse and vibrant, his images capture everyday people living alongside the challenges of development, climate change and social changes in the Mekong region. The Northeastern region has been dotted…
Read More