Press Release

Mekong River Commission’s Joint Committee will hold a special session on 28 January to conclude the Don Sahong Dam’s Prior Consultation process. Under the 1995 Mekong Agreement, Laos is required to address these concerns, while making a “good faith” effort to reach agreement between all four member countries on how to proceed.

Today International Rivers announces that Jason Rainey will step down as Executive Director on March 1, 2015. “It’s been a great honor to serve with such a highly respected and singularly important organization for the past several years. International Rivers has an urgent mandate, an exceptionally talented staff and Board, and is now globally positioned to meet our mission to protect rivers and defend the rights and livelihoods of river-dependent people,” said Mr. Rainey.

On Thursday January 15th, the 21st meeting of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Council will be held in Hanoi, Vietnam. The meeting comes at a time of increasing crisis for the Mekong River and for the MRC, as rhetoric on the importance of regional cooperation has given way to unilateral decision-making over projects which threaten to destroy the future of the Mekong and her people.

International and Cambodian groups today issued a complaint to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia raising concerns over human rights violations resulting from the development of two hydropower dam projects in Cambodia.

Berkeley, US: International Rivers is today publishing a report and video with voices from Lake Turkana, which tell an emotional story of a people facing a major crisis. The world’s largest desert lake – Lake Turkana in Kenya – is at imminent risk from upstream water grabs that will dramatically reduce the lake’s main water supply, shrink the lake, and kill off ecosystems and productive fisheries.

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) will hold a regional public consultation meeting tomorrow for the Don Sahong Hydropower Dam in Pakse, Laos. As part of the MRC’s Prior Consultation process for the second proposed Mekong mainstream dam, International Rivers is concerned that the meeting is one more box to check within a regional consultation process which is already shown to be broken; and will be used by the Government of Laos to legitimize a project which is already under construction.

Santarém, Brazil: Tensions are building over the Brazilian government's polemic plans to circumvent the law in order to dam the Tapajós River. On November 27th, representatives of a diverse coalition of threatened indigenous peoples and other traditional communities assembled with religious leaders and activists to challenge a new Amazon mega-dam complex.

Human rights groups gathered in Kuala Lumpur to raise concerns about the track record of International New York Times’ "Energy for Tomorrow" Conference's corporate sponsor, Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB). The Malaysian power supplier and dam developer has no track record of pursuing sustainable energy projects. To the contrary, SEB has a national and international reputation for complicity in human rights abuses, environmental destruction and disrespect for native customary rights.

Brasilia: In response to the Rousseff government’s failure to recognize indigenous rights to lands scheduled for flooding by two megadam projects, the Munduruku people have taken the extraordinary measure to demarcate their own territory.

Malaysian and international human rights organizations are uniting to publicly denounce the actions taken by police to intimidate indigenous peoples in Sarawak at the proposed site of the Baram Dam. They will be following up with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.