BLOG
Hydropower In Asia: Water Torture?
May 23rd, 2020
Via The Economist, a look at how China – if it won’t build fewer dams – could at least share information with farmers and fisherman in downstream countries: Rivers flow downhill, which in much of Asia means they start on the Tibetan plateau before cascading away to the east, west and south. Those steep descents provide the ideal setting […]
Read more »South-East Asia’s Biggest River Is Drying Up
May 18th, 2020
Via The Economist, a sobering report on the Mekong: Fish writhe frantically in the shallow pool, as their schoolmates stranded on the exposed sandbar breathe their last. It is November, the end of the monsoon season, yet the water in the Mekong river is perilously low. On this stretch, in north-eastern Thailand, the bank is […]
Read more »Sudan Rejects Ethiopia Proposal To Sign Nile Mega-Dam Agreement
May 16th, 2020
Via Al Jazeera, a report on Sudan’s recent rejection of Ethiopia’s proposal to sign Nile mega-dam agreement: Sudan has rejected an Ethiopian proposal to sign an initial agreement greenlighting the filling of a controversial mega-dam, calling its neighbour to resume the stalled United States-brokered negotiations on the issue. On Tuesday, Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China’s Control of the Mekong
May 8th, 2020
Via The Diplomat, a report on how China – whether through its own dams or the financing and construction of dams in other countries – is largely in the driver’s seat when it comes to the Mekong: A recently published report by Eyes on Earth, Inc. has pointed the finger at Chinese dams holding back water […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Mekong Dams Threaten Tonle Sap Lake
April 27th, 2020
Via China Dialogue, a report on how the use and construction of dams on the Mekong will determine the future of Southeast Asia’s largest lake, Tonle Sap Lake: As the Tonle Sap floodplain empties into the Mekong this spring, the Cambodians who rely on these waters face bleak prospects, with fish catches reportedly 10 to 20% of previous years. […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Science Shows Chinese Dams Are Devastating the Mekong
April 22nd, 2020
Via Foreign Policy, a report on new data demonstrating a devastating effect on downstream Mekong water supplies that feed millions of people: Eleven massive dams straddle the mighty Mekong River before it leaves China and flows into Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and on into Vietnam. Yet I have long been skeptical that China could use […]
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