A USD80-million research project at India’s Koyna dam site will study reservoir-triggered earthquakes (aka reservoir-induced seismicity) and the causes behind them. Dam activity at Koyna was blamed for a powerful earthquake in 1967 that destroyed the village of Koynanagar in western India’s Maharashtra state, left 180 people dead, 1,500 injured, thousands homeless and power cut off to Bombay.
China builds new framework governing civil society organizations
The National Law Review breaks down highlights from China’s controversial new Law on the Management of the Activities of Foreign Non-Governmental Organizations Within China into two parts: the first looks at Charity Law, the second, Foreign NGO Law.
Why China’s nuclear exports may struggle to find a market
China seems well placed to trump its competitors in the nuclear export business but buyer concerns about the quality of components, the rigor of the Chinese regulatory system, the risk of dependence on China and the potential leakage of technologies with strategic geopolitical use, may prove a tough sell. China Dialogue reports.
Landslide at Chinese dam site signals looming risks
Another deadly landslide at a hydropower construction site in Fujian, south-east China, highlights the growing risks of dam building in mountainous regions of Asia. Chinadialogue.net reports.
Too many dams to look after
As China continues to embrace a new era of hydropower expansion, demand for dam inspection has outpaced the country’s supply of inspectors, ramping up safety fears for thousands of small- and medium-sized dams in China’s rural areas that have been “ignored”, reports Ecns.cn.
People power for China’s rivers
China’s environment minister enlists people power to help clean up the country’s “black and stinky” waterways.
Mekong Delta loses half of silt to upstream dams: scientists
A soft shield of silt that took over 6,000 years to form and which protects the ‘rice bowl’ of Vietnam against intrusion from seawater, erosion and declining groundwater levels has been seriously stripped by Chinese dams on the Mekong River, say experts. Half of the river’s essential sediment is now trapped upstream and the delta may be in jeopardy of disappearing altogether. Thanh Nien News reports.
A warning for parched China: a city runs out of water
Experts fear Lintao’s dry-up is a sign of things to come. Probe International fellow and noted Chinese environmental journalist, Dai Qing, says China’s water scarcity and toxicity is the greatest danger facing her country today.
The myth of sustainable hydropower
2016 will be a decisive year for hydropower projects on the mainstream Mekong. Southeast-Asia based journalist, Tom Fawthrop, looks at the notion of ‘nice dams’ that supposedly don’t inflict too much damage on their surrounding environments and their opposite reality: the hidden costs of hydropower and the irreversible destruction of unique ecosystems.
St. Lawrence River is ‘slowly dying,’ U.S. environmental group warns
American Rivers says “harmful” dam operations, not pollution, are threatening fish, wildlife and local communities.
Fearing a flood
Alarm over northern Iraq’s Mosul Dam continues to mount. This in-depth Globe and Mail update looks at how Saddam Hussein’s vanity project reached this point and what will happen if the dam does fail.
China’s ‘water grab’ and its consequences
Beijing’s revisionist approach to the status quo in Southeast Asia is nowhere more evident than its “land grab” in the South China Sea and “water grab” in the upper reaches of the Mekong River, says renowned Thai commentator Thitinan Pongsudhirak.
Brahma Chellaney: China’s dam boom stokes concerns in Asia
The need for China to enter into institutionalized water-sharing arrangements with its downstream neighbours is key to building water cooperation and the protection of critical ecosystems but its reluctance to do so, says geostrategist and author Brahma Chellaney, is to secure its monetary and political power as the controller of Asia’s major waters.
China Watch
China moves into “Minority Report” territory with its latest surveillance project aimed at identifying citizen threats before they strike.
Until no one dares
China expands its corruption crackdown beyond public sector “tigers” and “flies” to include private sector executives and even university officials.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
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Probe Media
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