(July 29, 2009) Beijing has started to plant water-source forests in its neighboring Hebei Province to protect two of the city’s largest reservoirs, official said Wednesday.
Thirsty Beijing awash in water woes
(December 22, 2008) This capital’s growing thirst for clean water is clashing with provincial demands and concerns that plans to tap China’s rivers will hurt an already troubled environment.
Beijing hikes water price to ease shortage
(December 22, 2009) Beijing will raise water price by 8 percent starting Tuesday to encourage saving in the Chinese capital, local authorities said Monday.
Reluctant support for staggered rise
(December 18, 2009) Most public representatives at a hearing on water costs yesterday said they supported an increase in the cost of tap water for next year because they had “no alternative”.
More Three Gorges migrants returning home
(December 18, 2009) Migrants displaced by the construction of the Three Gorges dam are returning to their hometowns after they struggled to make a living in their new homes, says a recent report in Shanghai Daily. According to the report, almost 200,000 residents from the Hubei Province and Chongqing Municipality were forced to move last year after the Three Gorges reservoir submerged 20 districts or counties.
Dams and Development Threaten the Mekong
(December 18, 2009) Environmentalists worry that the rush to develop the Mekong, particularly the dams, is not only changing the panorama of the river but could also destroy the livelihoods of people who have depended on it for centuries. One of the world’s most bountiful rivers is under threat, warns a series of reports by the United Nations, environmental groups and academics.
Beijing water price hikes ‘forced on public’
(December 17, 2009) The government’s decision to raise water prices drew criticism from local residents who voluntarily attended the public hearing on Wednesday.
Climate Change fears promoting dangerous and costly technologies
(December 18, 2009) Climate change fears are pushing developing countries around the world into funding risky and uneconomic projects. China’s recent announcement that it is planning a massive expansion of its nuclear program is the latest example.
Thinking outside the foreign aid box
(December 18, 2009) Foreign aid is facing more criticism this time from an official at the United Nations Millennium Campaign. According to a recent report in the Guardian UK, Sylvia Mwichuli, the UN millennium campaign communications coordinator, told an audience attending a media workshop that governments in Africa must look for different ways to finance their national budgets, rather than relying on foreign aid.
Charge pool owners more, NGO says
(December 17, 2009) Beijing can save at least 190 million cu m water per year – double the capacity of Guanting Reservoir – if the extravagant lifestyle of its residents can be controlled, a leading NGO said after the water price hearing yesterday.
The GOOD 100: Dambisa Moyo
Dead Aid offers a prescription for African development that doesn’t involve giving away money, but instead proposes a capitalistic approach to enable African nations to tap into the financial markets to their own benefit. By receiving and slowly improving credit ratings and by issuing bonds, while encouraging foreign investment, Moyo argues, African nations can free themselves from a damaged system and grow using the same paradigm that works for developed nations.
Dutch politician asks if aid really aids
(December 11, 2009) Arend Jan Boekestijn’s book deals a new blow to the position of development aid in the Dutch political landscape, which seemed unassailable until recently. For decades, the subject was taboo.
China: A blast from the past
(December 14, 2009) “Unfortunately we live in a system where our unelected leaders push ahead with mad dreams rather than take responsibility after bringing disasters to the ordinary people,” says Dai Qing, a conservationist who has spent time in China’s most notorious political prison for her criticism of government-led environmental destruction. “But perhaps if the leaders really believe their slogans and really decide it’s time to live in harmony with nature, then this will be the last mad mega-project we see in China.”
Group tracks carbon credit trading and issues warning
(December 15, 2009) The Canadian activist group Probe International based in Toronto is arguing that the global carbon credit market is not the environmental panacea it is held out to be and could actually be doing environmental harm.
China: A blast from the past
(December 14, 2009) Standing in the rubble of her home, with the sun setting on the graves of her ancestors behind her, Li De breaks down as she describes being relocated to make way for the Chinese government’s latest grand engineering project. Her house in rural Henan province will soon be submerged beneath a reservoir feeding the central route of the biggest water scheme in history – the “south-north water diversion project”.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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Probe International 