(June 18, 2009) A detailed look at the colossal ship lift proposed for the Three Gorges Dam: a structure so enormous in dimension and complex in its engineering, it effectively represents a ‘moveable building’.
(June 17, 2009) Last August, HidroAysén submitted its Environmental Impact Assessment to the environmental authorities for its proposed hydroelectric dams in the Patagonia region of southern Chile. The EIA excluded the transmission component of the project, which would be developed by Transelec and includes a 1,500-mile long transmission line and related infrastructure crossing through 14 legally protected natural areas and thousands of private properties, around volcanoes, and over fjords spanning, in all, more than half of Chile’s entire length.
(June 18, 2009) Group says Cambodian fisheries vulnerable to planned Mekong hydro dams.
(June 18, 2009) Citizens of six countries which share the Mekong River on Thursday submitted a petition with 16,000 signatures to Thailand’s Prime Minister to save the Mekong River.
(June 18, 2009) Several dams on China’s mighty Yellow River are close to collapse just a few years after they were built amid concerns that over 40 percent of the nation’s reservoirs are unsafe, state media has said.
(June 16, 2009) As officials from Iceland, a nation with a population of only 300,000, sat down to negotiate the conclusion of the IceSave dispute with their counterparts from the U.K. and the Netherlands, the disadvantage of Iceland was apparent from the start.
(June 15, 2009) China’s global dam building business has its roots in the massive Three Gorges project, which is now almost fully operational and was built mainly using Western technology and construction know-how.
(June 15, 2009) Canadian-owned power utility Belize Electricity Limited, blocked media from its annual general meeting in Belize last week. The company owned by Fortis of Newfoundland blames Belize’s Public Utilities Commission for its;$10.8 million loss on record earnings of $176 million (Belize dollars) last year.
(June 15, 2009) The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services put its long-term sovereign credit rating on Ecuador in highly speculative territory today in the wake of the country’s debt exchange.
(December 28, 2007) Home to almost half of the world’s 45,000 biggest dams, China has embarked on a push to export its hydropower know-how to developing countries — even as it contends with environmental damage and social upheaval at home from the massive Three Gorges Dam.
(June 15, 2009) As the economic crisis continues to work its way through the global economic system, the World Bank is using the slowdown as an opportunity to increase lending to the developing world. According to the bank’s president, Robert Zoellick, the bank will increase its lending by $100 billion over the next three years. In 2009 alone, the bank plans to triple its lending from $13.5-billion to $35-billion.
(June 14, 2009) Pre-empting possible delays in external flows, Pakistan has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $4 billion stand-by loan to finance the yawning budget gap in the year 2009-10 in case multilateral donors fail to release the pledged amount to Islamabad.
(June 12, 2009) China Environment Ministry has suspended the construction of two hydropower dams in the upper Yangtze River region. The ministry has suspended because of the construction work was started without the necessary environmental assessments, which is illegal. These hydropower dams require additional environmental reviews to proceed. These hydropower dams are part of a projected CNY200 billion hydropower project along the Jinsha River tributary in southwest China.
(June 12, 2009) Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa said his government is considering arbitrating a resolution to his country odious debts with multilateral lenders and other governments.These debts were imposed by force,he said Correa said last night in Quito. We have rebelled against the system that established odious, unfair, illegal, immoral debts.
(June 12, 2009) The portfolio manager of Templeton Global Bond Fund, Michael Hasenstab, says he’s investing in Iraqi bonds rather than treasuries, U.K. gilts or Japanese bonds. He believes the massive amount of debt occured by the U.S. and other governments over the past year will drive up inflation, weaken their currencies and hamper economic growth.
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