REVIEW Iraq's debt relief: Procedure and potential implications for international debt relief
December 28, 2007
Three precedents have been set as a result of Iraq's experience, says Martin Weiss in an updated paper about the treatment of Iraq's debts by creditor nations following the fall of Saddam Hussein. Weiss argues, convincingly, that the international community is prepared to protect strategically important countries from onerous debt burdens. But his argument that Iraq's experience demonstrates an unwillingness of successors to dictators to claim odious debts is less convincing. [Full story]
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Critic of Three Gorges remains steadfast
December 24, 2007
Journalist and Three Gorges dam critic Dai Qing takes on the Beijing Olympics, which she describes as a waste of resources in a country where millions still live without access to clean drinking water, decent education or health care. [Full story]
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Lao dam impact policies a 'shambles'
December 13, 2007
A report by the Nam Theun 2 Power Company's panel of international experts warns of "significant impoverishment" in hundreds of villages affected by the World Bank's model dam project, and says more donor aid is needed. Probe International's Grainne Ryder argues instead that revenues from the Nam Theun 2 dam should go directly to villagers suffering losses caused by the dam's operations. Read the article and letters to the editor from the World Bank, the former CEO of the French-led Nam Theun 2 Power Company, and the company's former "downstream impacts manager." [Full story]
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Reclaiming the Mekong
December 10, 2007
National legislation imposing environmental constraints on Mekong river monopolists, such as Electricity of Vietnam, is urgently needed. The article cites US and Canadian examples. [Full story]
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Three Gorges migrant victims decry corruption and abuse
December 10, 2007
Residents forced to make way for the Three Gorges dam have been denied resettlement funds, says The China Post. Probe International's executive director Patricia Adams said theft of funds and mistreatment of upstream residents remained "pervasive" and that "in most resettlement areas … the people have suffered it in silence." [Full story]
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Thirsty dragon at the Olympics
December 06, 2007
After the Olympics, how will Beijing's insatiable thirst for water be satisfied? asks Chinese environmentalist and Probe International Fellow Dai Qing in this week's New York Review of Books. She warns that amidst China's newfound wealth, its plains, forests, and rivers are silently dying. "This is the silence of China today. It is a silence that speaks of the grave." [Full story]
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BEIJING: Chinese suffering a new water torture
December 01, 2007
Beijing's dead waterways will be brought back to life—temporarily—in time for the Olympic Games, reports The Age. Officials will pump 3 billion cubic metres of water into the city from four dams in neighbouring Hebei province to replenish the water in the city's dirty canal system. Probe International Fellow Dai Qing says, "I don't support having the Games in Beijing—we don't have enough water to support it." [Full story]
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Residents fear China's Three Gorges dam
November 27, 2007
Maoping, China: Residents in the Three Gorges dam reservoir area fear an increased risk of harm to the environment as a result of the dam's impacts. One of the biggest concerns currently is that the reservoir's seasonal water fluctuations have unsettled the delicate geology of the area and that this may escalate the risk of landslides and other dangers. Patricia Adams of Probe International says that "an extraordinary amount of damage" has already been done "not only to property but to the irreplaceable network of human and economic relations" that make up the region. [Full story]
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PRESS RELEASE: Canadian government must take responsibility for role in disastrous Three Gorges project, says Probe International
November 21, 2007
Probe International calls for the Canadian government to "make amends for failing to warn the Chinese government that the project's environmental risks would ultimately threaten the lives, property, and economic future of millions of people living along the Yangtze river." [Full story]
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REVIEW Partially odious debts? A framework for an optimal liability regime
November 20, 2007
This provocative paper is sure to raise the ire of a civil society that wants Third World debts canceled because of their illegitimacy. But it won't make the lenders who want "no fault" debt forgiveness (courtesy of Northern taxpayers) happy either. Instead, authors Ben-Shahar and Gulati push the legal envelope of "how to" resolve the Third World debt quagmire and in doing so, empower odious debt advocates with more legal fight than ever before. [Full story]
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Chinese dam projects criticized for their human costs
November 19, 2007
"The Communist Party is hoping the dam does not become China's biggest folly," says the New York Times in a recent feature about the Three Gorges dam and the human costs of dam building in China. [Full story]
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New York Times "Choking on Growth" series
November 18, 2007
Probe Fellow Dai Qing responds to New York Times readers’ online queries about China’s environmental woes and the Three Gorges dam. This is part four of the New York Times “Choking on Growth” series that looks at the causes and effects of China's environmental crisis. [Full story]
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Mekong River Commission remiss - activists
November 14, 2007
The campaign to save South-east Asia's largest waterway from being blocked by a series of massive dams picked up pace this week, with activists accusing a regional river authority of abandoning its mission to protect the Mekong River.
Read the letter sent to the UN-funded Mekong River Commission by 201 citizens groups and individuals from 30 countries, including Probe International. [Full story]
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World must help protect vital Mekong river: activists
November 14, 2007
International intervention is necessary to halt the construction of six dams along the Mekong River that could displace tens of thousands of people and endanger over a thousand aquatic species, say environmental groups. [Full story]
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One dam thing after another
November 01, 2007
Skeptics about the world's biggest hydroelectric dam are being vindicated as Chinese officials are becoming more worried about landslides and pollution in the Three Gorges reservoir and its tributaries. The Economist reviews the recent shift in official reporting and commentary on the Three Gorges dam. [Full story]
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The Dam Breaks - China can no longer deny the environmental disaster at Three Gorges
October 15, 2007
As recently as 2004, the official China Daily was still emitting happy talk about the Three Gorges project's "achievements in environmental protection of the area." But now comes word that the warnings of Dai Qing and others were true. [Full story]
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China to move four million more from Three Gorges area
October 12, 2007
Four million people will be forced to leave their homes near the Three Gorges dam reservoir area after officials warned of a potential environmental "catastrophe" there. The announcement follows a stunning admission by Chinese officials that dam-related problems are putting the lives of nearby residents in danger. Probe International fellow Dai Qing, however, decries officials for now "all of a sudden" acknowledging what experts have been warning all along. "I am ashamed of you all," she said. [Full story]
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Millions forced out by China dam
October 12, 2007
Critics of China's Three Gorges dam warned of all the problems now emerging years ago, says BBC correspondent Chris Xia. Recent official recognition of negative impacts suggests the current leadership is trying to distance itself from the dam's toxic legacy, he said. A proposed new resettlement plan will likely only add to current woes, says Probe International's Grainne Ryder. [Full story]
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Three Gorges dam may displace millions more
October 12, 2007
The recent announcement by Chinese officials that a new relocation plan is necessary to protect the Three Gorges dam reservoir area has prompted the concern of critics. Probe International's Grainne Ryder points out that the first resettlement program was never properly assessed and that "local officials are in the dark" for this second move, which "will likely provoke more conflict and social unrest." [Full story]
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Chinese government counts cost of Three Gorges Dam
October 09, 2007
Recent revelations about the problems at the Three Gorges Dam may be part of an attempt by senior Chinese officials to distance themselves from the controversial hydropower project, say Probe International's executive director, Patricia Adams, and Probe International Fellow, Dai Qing.
[Full story]
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