As a top investment bank criticized for involvement in the Three Gorges dam prepares to unveil an environmental policy, activists wonder whether Morgan Stanley Dean Witter’s words will be turned into significant action.
Nation sets campaign to fight geological disasters
(January 11, 2006) Officials are racing against time to finish a comprehensive geological-disasters warning system in the Three Gorges dam area before the coming flood season, China’s deputy minister of land and resources says.
Nu news could be bad news
(January 11, 2006) Secrecy continues to surround the controversial plan to build a series of big dams on the Nu River in Yunnan province. Now, Chinese media reports suggest the project is set to be rammed through without environmental-impact documents being made public or open hearings held, as required by law.
China misses energy saving goal, but cracks down
(January 10, 2006) China missed its energy saving target last year, a top official said on Wednesday, but Beijing is cracking down on major companies that ignored environmental rules as sustainable development moves up the government agenda.
Chinese company chosen to help build huge dam in Ethiopia
(January 10, 2006) China has won a bid to help construct a dam on a Nile River tributary that will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric project and 10 metres taller than the Three Gorges dam.
US legislators oppose debt deal
(January 9, 2006) Some members of the United States Congress have welcomed the debt deal between Nigeria and the Paris Club of creditors whereby Nigeria pays $12.4 billion in return for an $18 billion debt cancellation, but strongly urged the US not to collect its share of the debt from Nigeria.
American lawmakers ask govt to return Nigeria’s debt repayment
(January 9, 2006) A group of US lawmakers have called on the American government to return to Nigeria Washington D.C’s share of the $12.4 billion Abuja is supposed to repay to its creditors.
US lawmakers call Nigerian debt ‘odious’
(January 7, 2006) Anti-debt campaigners and some U.S. lawmakers are calling on the Bush administration to return debt arrears owed by Nigeria and to let the African nation spend the funds on health and education through a World Bank-sponsored fund.
Is China ready for more floods?
Some experts believe China’s big-dam projects are an inefficient use of the funds set aside for flood prevention, BBC News Online reports. ‘Give the people in the villages more money,’ it quotes water specialist Wang Weiluo as saying.
Green dawn
(January 5, 2006) Environmentalists are becoming more active in China but they are forced to keep their activities to a small scale, John Gittings writes.
Legislators to Bush administration: let Nigeria spend money on health, not debt
(January 5, 2006) “Much of Nigeria’s debt can be considered odious given the fact that the original loans were made to authoritarian regimes – many of which were then looted while interest and penalties accumulated.”
Fine words but corruption soars
(January 5, 2006) Corruption deals in Africa are getting bigger. The crooks are getting smarter and doing ever greater damage to Africa’s economies – sucking out resources meant for health, education and clean water.
Cuba waging fight against corruption
(January 5, 2006) Some predict that the anti-corruption campaign will be a watershed in the history of the Cuban Revolution.
China launches site to report corruption
(January 5, 2006) China is putting its marathon anti-graft crackdown online, launching a Web site for the public to report corrupt officials.
Floods ravage north-western China
At least 205 people are dead, and hundreds more are missing, in catastrophic floods in north-western China that local reports describe as the worst in the area for more than a century.
Patricia Adams
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