Bhutan

Working Transboundary: Building Resilience and Democratizing Governance in the Brahmaputra Basin

Wednesday, December 6, 2017
The Brahmaputra River has repeatedly been the centre ground of diplomatic hostility between China, India and Bangladesh. With no transboundary treaty or common understanding between the countries sharing the river, downstream countries have repeatedly raised concerns that China, the upstream riparian country, would dam and divert the glacial meltwaters that are crucial not only for towns, cities and industry, but for the millions of farmers in the plains of India and Bangladesh downstream. Others have expressed concern about the cumulative impacts of long-standing plans to build more than 100

Save The Heron, Protect a Watershed

Confluence of Phochu (right) and Mochu (left), which together form the Punatsangchu
Three years ago, around this time of year, I was on a river excursion in Bhutan. We journeyed for a few days in Punakha, one of the country's central districts. We were there to survey two large hydropower projects that were being constructed in the habitat of the endangered White Bellied Heron, a bird found in the foothills of the eastern Himalayas. Tourists here know little about the bird; they come to see the monastery and government headquarters that were built at the picturesque confluence of the Pho Chu and Mo Chu rivers, the headwaters of the Punatsangchu River. Confluence of Phoch

Bhutan Rivers Watch

Free flowing stretches will be few and far between once all planned hydropower projects are commissioned
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Bhutan, a country of less than one million inhabitants, is a mostly highland nation keen on holding onto its ancient Himalayan and Buddhist traditions. Yet, in some ways western ideals and modernization have made measured inroads into urban areas in the past decade. A growing number of people in government, as well as civil society, are advocating high economic growth goals. This development is being pursued steadily within the parameters laid out by their much-celebrated Gross National Happiness Commission. With great clarity, the Bhutanese government insists on maintaining a low-volume, but
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