(September 4, 2006) The controversial Salween dam projects are likely to go ahead without social and environmental impact studies to avoid interfering in Burma’s internal affairs, a senior official of the Thai utility EGAT says.
Water project trial targets Italian giant
(September 4, 2006) Impregilo, the last remaining company to be charged in the landmark Lesotho corruption trials and one of the world’s largest construction companies, was charged on Sept. 4 with five counts of bribery involving millions of rands in connection with the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.
SEPA pledges to probe serious polluters
(September 3, 2006) China’s top environmental watchdog has launched investigations into six of the nation’s most notorious polluters.
Rules ignored, toxic sludge sinks Chinese village
(September 3, 2006) There is no shortage of environmental laws in China, but the dire pollution problems persist, in part because environmental protection is often subverted by local protectionism, corruption and regulatory inefficiency.
As China spews pollution, villagers rise up
(September 3, 2006) Villagers say a few people in China are getting rich by destroying the environment. ‘This whole system is unfair,’ one farmer is quoted as saying, ‘They’re getting wealthy on the backs of poor people like us.’
China’s Environment
(September 1, 2006) Bruce Gellerman interview with Dai Qing
Export credit the new ‘odious debt’ of the Third World
(September 1, 2006) Patricia Adams, executive director of Probe International, speaking to the European Commission Conference on Export Credit Agencies and Sustainable Development, 20 June 2006, Brussels.
Huaneng invests to double capacity
(August 31, 2006) China Huaneng Group, the country’s biggest electricity producer, plans to spend as much as 250 billion yuan (US$31.25 billion) by 2010 to more than double its generation capacity.
China nomads on energy’s cutting edge
(August 31, 2006) China seeks to obtain 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. However, more than a third of the pledge is to be met by small dams in environmentally sensitive regions, a Western experts notes.
China fails to cut main pollutants – government
(August 31, 2006) The State Environmental Protection Administration lays the blame for rising pollution in China on poor enforcement of regulations and a ‘crude mode of economic growth.’
7bn yuan put on mainland emissions
(August 31, 2006) Power plants must buy rights to emit sulfur dioxide from as early as next year – at an annual cost of 7 billion yuan based on current output – a senior environmental adviser to the central government revealed.
Sinohydro ‘downgraded’ over accident record
(August 31, 2006) Sinohydro, the Chinese company set to build a billion-dollar dam on the Salween River in Burma in partnership with the Thai utility EGAT, has been criticized in an annual performance review of state-owned enterprises for unspecified "safety or environmental pollution accidents."
Chemicals pollute river in Nanjing tourist spot
(August 30, 2006) A chemical plant that severely polluted a river popular with tourists in the capital of Jiangsu province has been told to limit production for the next few months.
Heatwave puts China's giant dam in the dock
‘Startlingly, no scientific evaluation of the possible impact on the local weather was ever conducted as part of the feasibility study of Three Gorges dam.’
National People’s Congress calls China’s pollution problem ‘shocking’
(August 29, 2006) The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress used the word ‘shocking’ to describe the pollution problem in China in a recent environmental report, Xinhua says.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
Other News Sources
Probe International 