By: Katy Yan Update: Twelve civil society organizations, including International Rivers, have sent letters to the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and the Environment urging them to conduct formal investigations into the human rights impacts of the Barro Blanco dam located on the Tabasará River in Panama. The…
Read MoreBy Katy Yan, Former China Program Coordinator Originally featured in World Rivers Review (June 2013) More than half of the rivers previously thought to exist in China appear to be missing, according to China’s “First National Water Census Bulletin” published in March. Only 22,909 rivers were located by surveyors, compared with the more than 50,000…
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By: Rudo Sanyanga, former Africa Program Director Although I had spent many years working on the Zambezi River, the lower Zambezi region in Mozambique was unfamiliar to me. I had crossed the Zambezi at the Tete Bridge a few times before but had never been on the stretch between the Cahora Bassa Dam and Tete town…
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By: Wim Jonker Klunne Africa is home to one of the world’s largest off-grid populations: approximately 590 million people live with no connection to their national electric grid, according to the International Energy Agency. Grid expansion in Africa has been notoriously slow, and thus new solutions are needed to bridge this energy divide. Small hydropower can play a pivotal role…
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By: Berklee Lowrey-Evans On August 16, 2012, after nearly 10 years of campaigning, La Parota Dam was officially cancelled. This is an amazing victory for the communities in Mexico – especially the Council of Communal Land Owners and Communities Against Construction of La Parota Dam (CECOP) – who have been fighting the project from the beginning, and…
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By: Payal Parekh International Rivers continues to submit comments to the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board pointing out problems with proposed hydropower CDM projects. Most recently, I prepared comments on the El Quimbo Project on the Magdalena River in Colombia. This megadam, 400 MW at full capacity, is neither additional nor does it promote sustainable development. Additionality is the flawed…
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