By Natia Kuprashvili / Environment News Service The Georgian authorities are promising that 15 new hydroelectric power stations will create thousands of jobs and improve energy provision, but environmentalists and residents of the villages to be flooded have voiced strong objections. At least 20 villages are expected to be submerged by the reservoirs created by … Continue reading Georgian activists mobilizing against new dam projects→
By Polinizaciones “This is not done here, we will continue to fight, but this feels worse than when the humans destroy the tree in the movie AVATAR,” lamented Luisa Aguas, from the local community organization Comunidad. On March 3 at approximately 5:37pm, Emgesa, affiliate of Spanish-Italian Energy Giant Enel-Endesa, announcedthat they had successfully begun the … Continue reading Despite river diversion, anti-dam activists in Colombia vow to win→
By Agence France-Presse A major river in India’s northeast that originates in Tibet has suddenly dried up, triggering speculation that China might be responsible, a local official told AFP on Thursday. The Brahmaputra has its source in China’s southwestern Tibet region where it is known as the Yarlung Tsangpo, and it enters India in the … Continue reading Major river in India flowing from occupied Tibet mysteriously dries up→
By National Geographic A hole was blasted in the base of the 125-foot-tall Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington. In less than 2 hours, the reservoir behind the dam drained completely and the White Salmon flowed unimpeded by a dam for the first time in 100 years. From YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LxMHmw3Z-U
By The Times of India NHPC’s 2000-MW Lower Subansiri hydro-electric project is likely to face more resistance in the coming days, with hundreds of anti-dam activists resolving on Thursday to launch a total blockade of all construction materials for the project. The agitators took the pledge in the presence of Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha … Continue reading Protestors in India vow to stop dam project by any means necessary→
By Edward Helmore / The Observer As she stands among villagers in the highlands of western Panama, their chosen leader, Silvia Carrera, is an image of bucolic harmony. Then Carrera, elected chief or general cacique of the Ngäbe-Buglé community, gestures to a woman who hands her a bag of spent US riot-control equipment – rubber … Continue reading Village chief in Panama vows to continue resistance against mining interests→
By Mongabay Federal public prosecutors in Brazil have challenged a plan to strip protected status from 86,288 hectares of land to make way for five new dams, reports International Rivers. The challenge is set to be heard by Brazil’s Supreme Court, according to the group, which is campaigning against new hydroelectric projects in environmentally-sensitive areas. … Continue reading Brazil’s plan to cut protected areas for dams faces constitutional challenge→
By Dominic Brown The Lower Omo Valley in south-western Ethiopia is a vast and rugged region of mountains and valleys, inhabited largely by nomadic agro-pastoralist tribes numbering some 200,000 people. Many live a simple existence, living in straw thatched huts and have little contact with the outside world. But the Ethiopian government’s new found appetite … Continue reading Forcible removal of indigenous Ethiopians taking place for sake of sugar industry→
By Polinizaciones ESMAD (riot police) in Huila, Colombia began the forced removal of the fisher-people, campesinos, miners, day laborers and others who have been blocking the diverting of the Magdalena River for the Quimbo Dam early Tuesday morning. The diverting of the river was being blocked by a peaceful occupation of the area known as Domingo … Continue reading Colombian police violently removes anti-dam protestors→
By Jeremy Hance / Mongabay Last October indigenous groups, local people, and domestic NGOs formed the Save Sarawak’s Rivers Network to fight the planned construction of a dozen dams in the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. The coalition opposes the dam-building plans, known as the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) initiative, due … Continue reading Activists form alliance to stop dam-building on Borneo→