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This article by Ann-Kathrin Schneider first appeared as an opinion piece in the Pakistani daily "The News" on November 12, 2007. It discusses World Bank president Zoellick's recent visit to the country and his pledges to increase funding to Pakistan. The author demands "The World Bank should not fund more large water infrastructure projects in Pakistan before redressing the mistakes of the past. Instead of Robert Zoellick demanding "deeper reforms" from the Pakistani government, the Pakistani people have every right to urge "deeper reforms" from the

Claiming the Mekong's water resources hold considerable potential for development the World Bank and Asian Development Bank are promoting increased investment in large-scale water infrastructure through their Mekong Water Resources Assistance Strategy. This article, published in Watershed Journal, examines the central tenets of the strategy and explore its wider implications for water resources development in the Mekong basin. IntroductionIn a working paper released in June 2006, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) outlined their new Mekong Water Resources Assistance Strategy (

This World Rivers Review article discusses the revival of plans to build a cascade of dams on the Mekong River mainstream and the likely implications. While China is midway through the construction of a controversial cascade of major dam projects on the Upper Mekong mainstream, the lower stretch of the river shared by Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam has so far escaped hydropower development. For the 60 million people who depend on the lower Mekong for food, income, transportation and other services, that has been good news. But now there are troubling signs that the tide is turning, as L

This op-ed first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, July 29, 2007 Floods are the most destructive, most frequent and most costly natural disasters on Earth. And they're getting worse. Large parts of central and western England are underwater in the worst flooding in 60 years. Insurers estimate the damage could reach $6 billion -- on top of the $3 billion in flood losses suffered in northern England in June. Over the past two months, the monsoon season in Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan has, conservatively, claimed hundreds of lives. Texas has suffered major flood damage, a

The ADB is promoting the development of a ‘Mekong Power Grid' that, if implemented, would facilitate the construction of numerous hydropower schemes in the Mekong Region. This Bankwatch article discusses problems with the plans for the grid, and civil society's call for a ‘Comprehensive Energy Options Assessment'. Introduction In the relentless pursuit of its vision of economic integration under the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Initiative, the ADB is promoting ‘Regional Power Interconnection and Power Trade' as a flagship project, more commonly referred to as the ‘Mekong Power Grid

The Asian Development Bank has spent millions of dollars over the past 12 years on studies investigating energy options in the Greater Mekong Subregion. All of these studies were heavily biased toward promoting a regional grid fueled by hydropower, and none have included a comprehensive options assessment in line with World Commission on Dams recommendations. In this edition of World Reviews Review, Aviva Imhof looks at the mountains of paper from past ADB studies and examines what a true options assessment might look like.

Gustavo Castro Soto>  En la medida en que los gobiernos van cediendo su lugar y papel a las grandes empresas trasnacionales nos encontramos con un corrimiento de la confrontación sociedad vs. gobiernos a sociedad vs. Corporaciones trasnacionales. Esta confrontación la estamos viendo hoy en los temas de agua, energía eléctrica, bosques, petróleo, entre otros conflictos. Así, la resistencia Mesoamericana se ha levantado.

The article "A Region's Thirst", which was first published in the Sept 2007 edition of Himalmag, discusses the trends in hydropower development in South Asia and describes the use of small hydropower technology in Sri Lanka.

This op-ed first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, November 17, 2006 It comes as a surprise to most people, but the reservoirs behind the world’s dams are likely a major source of global warming pollution. In the case of big reservoirs in the tropics -- where most new dams are proposed -- hydropower can actually emit more greenhouse gases per kilowatt-hour than fossil fuels, including dirty coal. Climate change scientist Philip Fearnside estimates that hydro projects in the Brazilian Amazon emit at least twice as much greenhouse gas as coal plants. The worst example studied, Balbina D

Al concluir un recorrido por los proyectos de construcción de presas en Nayarit, Jalisco, Guerrero y Chiapas, integrantes del Movimiento Mexicano de Afectados por las Presas y en Defensa de los Ríos (Mapder), pidieron al gobierno del presidente Vicente Fox dejar de actuar irresponsablemente y generar desplazados internos por dichas obras. Los afectados – la mayoría ejidatarios y comuneros – presentarán sus casos a organismos internacionales y sus testimonios a diversas organizaciones sociales de México porque "el gobierno no puede seguir tapándose los ojos y dejar de escucha