Dam Safety

September 2008 World Rivers Review The Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province in April caused untold grief to tens of thousands of families. It also provoked a wave of generosity towards these victims from all levels of Chinese society, a response that was facilitated in part by journalists' ability to candidly report on the disaster. As Chinese Sociologist Zheng Yefu reflected, "Besides enormous grief and sorrow, we saw something new from any past disasters in China...the general public was well-informed about it." Zipingpu Dam was badly damaged in the earthquake of

Originally published in The Guardian As the huge reservoir behind China's controversial Three Gorges dam begins to fill up this weekend, an urgent rescue operation is being launched further upstream to save the dam from being choked by silt. The final go-ahead has been given for a new generation of four dams which are supposed to trap the silt on the Yangtze river's longest tributary, the Jinsha (Golden Sands) river. The scheme has been almost completely ignored so far in China and abroad. Alarmingly, it lies on the edge of a recognised seismic zone, a potential danger not mentioned in the few

South Africa is one of the power houses of Africa with a strong private sector interested in spreading their investments throughout the continent. This could be of great benefit to sustainable development of other African countries were South African companies using the same standards they use at home. South Africa’s dialogued system arising from its new democracy had as one of its core goals the redress of the unbalances caused by apartheid, this contributed to the achievement of high social standards that have influenced positively its development. One such area is the water sector, wher

2007 "Represas, Ríos y Gente" Informe (DRP) Italia, octubre del 1963: La represa Vaiont, una de las más altas del mundo, produjo terremotos tan pronto comenzaron a llenar su embalse. Un temblor produjo derrumbes que cayeron al embalse, creando un enorme oleaje que superó a la represa en 110 metros. Unos dos minutos más tarde, se arrasó la población de Longarone, causando la muerte de casi todos sus 2000 habitantes. China, agosto del 1975: Por lo menos unas 230.000 personas murieron en un colapso estilo dominó de represas del río Huai - unas 85.000 en los ole

Dam Safety Concerns Provide Window of Opportunity for RestorationIn the aftermath of catastrophic flooding in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina and extreme storm events in the Northeastern United States that brought several dams to the breaking point, renewed attention has been focused on the growing crisis of dam safety in the US. River-protection groups would like to turn this crisis into an opportunity for river restoration through the removal of obsolete and unsafe dams. These events brought attention to the need for stronger state and federal dam safety policies and programs, and the po