(May 22, 1997) Nelson Mandela used a world economic forum in Harare this week to argue that South Africa’s major problem is servicing the massive debts run up by apartheid governments.
Cambodia debates damming of Mekong
(May 15, 1997) A way of life could disappear in meeting the demand of electricity. Having survived the Khmer Rouge terror, deadly diseases and even tiger attacks, stoic peasants in this remote corner of Cambodia now must ponder irrevocable change.
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam to cooperate on hydro
(May 12, 1997) Officials from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam pledged on Tuesday to cooperate in the development of hydroelectric and other power developments in their region.
World Bank ‘could be partly to blame’ but information may have been withheld
(April 22, 1997) The World Bank is partly to blame for the plight of villagers affected by the Pak Moon dam, a bank expert said yesterday. Resettlement specialist Warren Wicklin III said the bank may have failed to obtain full information on the project when it was proposed to the bank for financing which is one reason why affected villagers did not receive adequate compensation. "It’s possible the Thai government withheld information that could have had a negative impact on our decision-making but it’s also our fault that we didn’t try to obtain correct and enough information either," he said.
China revives controversial resettlement plan
China has revived a controversial plan to resettle Han Chinese, China’s ethnic majority, into the western province of Xinjiang, populated mainly by Muslim minorities, to make way for the massive Three Gorges dam.
Patronage Canada
(April 2, 1997) Probe International’s Executive Director, Patricia Adams, looks at some of the disastrous projects backed by the Canadian Crown corporation, the Export Development Corporation.
Probe Alert: World Bank considering guarantee for controversial dam in Laos
(April 1, 1997) The World Bank is preparing to back a hydroelectric dam project in the Mekong region of southeast Asia that will decimate the fisheries, forests, economies, and water supplies of thousands of local people, and threaten endangered wildlife.
April 1997 Campaign Letter
Canadian mining companies are wreaking havoc on the Third World’s environment – and the Canadian government is quietly helping them to do it.
Probe Alert April 1997
World Bank considering guarantee for controversial dam in Laos
Should we pay the debt of the past regime?
(March 14, 1997) Should the people who were victims of the oppressive machinery of apartheid now be forced to repay those financiers who were immoral enough to finance the machinery?
Thai utility drops Nam Theun 2 hydro project but World Bank tries to keep it alive
(March 6, 1997) The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has decided not to purchase power from the yet-to-be-built Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos until at least 2004, according to a report in the Bangkok daily, The Nation. The World Bank is still involved in the project, despite EGAT’s withdrawal, insisting it will not make a decision to finance the dam until the Lao government and the project’s private developers have completed environmental impact and resettlement studies. World Bank official Nina Shapiro, contacted last week, was unaware that the Nam Theun 2 power deal was in jeopardy.
Villagers await resettlement, they hope for a new and better life
(February 24, 1997) While debate on the controversial Nam Theun 2 hydro-electricity project rages on, residents of Nakai Plateau, the dam’s site which will be submerged as a result, are anxiously waiting to be resettled, hoping for a new and better life.
US $ 270 million loan to be granted to Laos from ADB
(February 18, 1997) The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide Laos of US $90 million in each of the next three years, an ADB representative said in an interview in Vientiane last week. "We sent Mr. Rajendran and some other programmers to Laos to programme assistance for Laos for the next three years, and we can now say that we will grant about US $90 million to Laos each year for the years 1998, 1999 and 2000W said Mr.Rajat Nag, programme manager of the ADB’s Programmes Department.
On the nature of reservoir-induced seismicity
(1997) In most cases of reservoir-induced seismicity, seismicity follows the impoundment, large lake-level changes, or filling at a later time above the highest water level achieved until then. We classify this as initial seismicity. This ‘‘initial seismicity’’ is ascribable to the coupled poroelastic response of the reservoir to initial filling or water level changes.
CIDA responds to Probe’s 1996 Mekong campaign
(January 29, 1997) Letter of January 6, 1997 in reply to concerns about Canada’s involvement in the hydroelectric development projects in the Mekong River Basin.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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