Resettlement

Oct. 24, 2012 Anthony Jude, Director Energy Division, Southeast Asia Department Asian Development Bank 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550, Philippines Re: Nam Song and Nam Leuk Hydropower Projects, Lao PDR Dear Mr. Jude, I am writing to follow up on the implementation of the Nam Song-Nam Leuk Environmental Mitigation Plan and review missions conducted by the ADB. In March 2012, an International Rivers’ consultant conducted a site visit to eight villages affected by the Nam Song Dam and three villages affected by the Nam Leuk Dam to assess the state of the mitigation plans. In light of

China relocated 1.3 million people during the 17 years it took to complete the Three Gorges dam. Even after finishing the $59 billion project last month, the threat of landslides along the dam's banks will force tens of thousands to move again.

1. BackgroundProject Overview The Myitsone Hydroelectric Project is located at the confluence of the Mali and N'Mai rivers and is the largest of seven dams (total capacity 13,360 MW) planned along the Irrawaddy, Mali Hka, and N'Mai Hka rivers in Burma. Scheduled for completion in 2019, Myitsone will become the 15th largest hydropower station in the world, with installed capacity at 6,000 MW. The dam project is expected to costs USD $3.6 billion dollars and is being developed by Myanmar Ministry of Electric Power-1, China Power Investment Corporation, and Asia World Company of Burma. Region

International Rivers' briefing paper describing the Nam Theun 2 project, its unsettled questions and broken promises, at the time of inauguration in December 2010.The US$1.3 billion Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project (NT2), located in the small Southeast Asian country of Laos, has been marketed as a model dam project and a development panacea for cash-strapped Laos. But more than 110,000 people continue to suffer project impacts and are paying the real price of NT2.

Originally published in National Geographic News While the residents of Majestic Mansion, a new high-end real estate development on the outskirts of Beijing, splash in their glittering blue swimming pool, residents of lakeside Danjiangkou City, just 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) away in neighboring Hubei Province, are packing up their belongings. They are leaving because the Chinese government will soon flood their village to expand the local reservoir. It turns out these two communities are tied to each other by lopsided demands for water, and by an ambitious solution to manage the coveted res

Originally published in the WSJ Blog China Real Time Report Environmental advocacy group International Rivers gives a mixed grade to China's biggest resettlement project since at least 1.2 million people were moved to make way for the Three Gorges reservoir. Some 330,000 people are being relocated to expand the Danjiangkou Reservoir in central China's Hubei province as part of a massive and controversial project to divert water from southern China along three canals to the north. The South-to-North Water Transfer Project is estimated to cost $62 billion - far more than even the Three

The $62 billion South-North Water Transfer Project is the biggest engineering scheme in Chinese history. About 330,000 people are currently being relocated for the expansion of the Danjiangkou reservoir, which marks the beginning of the transfer project's Middle Route. International Rivers has published an eyewitness report on China's biggest ongoing resettlement project. The report finds that the Chinese government has learned lessons from the experience with the Three Gorges Dam, but that serious problems remain. Download the report in English and ChinesePhotos of Danjiangkou dam and rese