(May 24, 2009) Legislators, trade unionists and civil-society groups in Asia have urged governments to focus their stimulus packages on community-based infrastructure investments to create jobs and address poverty that has been deepened by massive retrenchments.
Three Gorges Power Corp admits hydro dams too costly
(May 23, 2009) China Three Gorges Project Corporation vice-general manager has made a stunning admission: Relocating people and protecting the environment has made large-scale hydro projects too costly to warrant further investment.
5.2-magnitude earthquake shakes northwest China
(May 22, 2009) An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter Scale jolted China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region at 8:33 p.m. Thursday, according to China’s seismological network.
May 2009 Campaign Letter
Just one year ago, China’s deadly earthquake struck with abnormal power, leaving close to 90,000 dead or missing. Could China’s unrestrained dam building have triggered this “sleeping dragon,” we wondered.
Environmentalists cheer Premier Wen Jiabao’s call to stop construction on Liuku dam
(May 22, 2009) Environmentalists welcomed China’s Premier Wen Jiabao’s call for a stop to construction of the Liuku hydropower station on the Nu (Salween) river in Yunnan—one of only two rivers in China that has not been dammed.
The great Three Gorges turbine sell-off
(May 21, 2009) Shares of the Yangtze Power Company – operator of the Three Gorges dam – shot higher this week after the company announced that it will acquire the remaining 18 turbines at the Three Gorges dam from its parent, China Three Gorges Project Corporation.
The drag of the South-North Diversion Project
(May 21, 2009) A recent announcement that the much-criticized South-North Diversion Project is facing further delays may be the first sign that the Chinese government is reconsidering its penchant to pursue massively ambitious infrastructure projects.
Ending Ghana’s odious debts
(May 21, 2009) Political activist and anti-corruption campaigner, Lord Aikins Adusei, is calling on Ghana’s new government to put politics aside and start initiating economic and development programs. His remarks come after the country elected a new president, John Atta Mills, in a tightly contested vote last December.
Odious debts on YouTube
(May 20, 2009) Odious debt-like challenges have been happening under our very noses – we just haven’t been looking for them. That, says Probe International’s Executive Director Partricia Adams, is the underlying theme of a 2007 paper by Professor Robert Howse of the University of Michigan Law School.
Three Gorges in China and Landslides
(May 19, 2009) Another landslide that took place at the Three Gorges, China on May 18 prompted me to write this post and look closer at the causes of slope instability in that area.
Bracing for the unknown
(May 14, 2009) Last year’s earthquake in China is a salutary reminder about preparing for risk in the face of uncertainty.
More landslides in the Three Gorges Dam area
(May 19, 2009) Dramatic images of the moutainside after a landslide in the Three Gorges dam area dumps around 20,000 cubic meters of rock and mud into the Yangtze River.
Indonesian dam kills hundreds of citizens
(May 19, 2009) On March 27, a 76 year-old dam collapsed on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, killing more than a hundred citizens and destroying hundreds of homes. The Situ Gintung dam stood 16m high and held back a lake of nearly two million cubic metres of water.
CPP Investment Board urged to abandon controversial Chilean transmission scheme
(May 15, 2009) We are writing on behalf of the “Patagonia Defense Council” (“Consejo de Defensa de la Patagonia” – CDP), a diverse coalition of 58 organizations from Chile, USA, Canada, Spain and Italy, who have assumed the mission of defending the environmental integrity of Chilean Patagonia threatened by a mega hydroelectric project, called HidroAysén, and the associated transmissions lines.
Stop over-development of hydropower is the only way to save rare fish in the Yangtze
(May 15, 2009) Probe International provides a translation of a story detailing the effects on aquatic life resulting from the construction of hydro dams in the Yangtze. The article was originally published in The China Economic Times, on May 6, 2009.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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