Hill post: The Himalayas are being pounded again. Timber was stolen first; medicinal and aromatic herbs next. Now power projects are stealing water, life line for 30 million mountain folks and 3 billion in the Himalayan-water-dependent nations, as far as Vietnam. [1] The reassessed country-wise potential is: Pakistan: 41,722 MW, India 108,143 MW; Nepal 83,000

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The Hindu: Chinese authorities have granted approval for an environmental assessment of a controversial 2 GW dam project — slated to be the country’s tallest dam — despite concerns voiced by a number of environmental groups. The Ministry of Environmental Protection this week said it had approved a year-long assessment of the Shuangjiangkou project on

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Hydropower is by far the most established form of renewable energy. Though not without environmental impact, either in terms of the local environment or, in the case of large dams, in terms of carbon emissions from the reservoirs behind the dams, hydro is here to stay. Unfortunately hydropower will be affected to a far greater

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An amendment to the old treaty between the US and Mexico promises to bring back life to the dry Colorado delta. ‘Minute 319’, apart from sending water down the river and restoring the native habitat, also calls for more water sharing between the two countries, writes Henry Fountain. German Munoz looked out at the river

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The Hindu: Chinese reticence about projects on its stretch of the Brahmaputra do not assuage Indian fears about diversion of the river’s waters. By raising the Brahmaputra dams construction issue during his first meeting with the new Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was following a two-pronged strategy. On the one hand, Dr.

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Alertnet: Wooden water wheels have long captured energy from mountain streams. New versions work even better, helping provide a local, sustainable source of energy to Indian villages high in the Himalayas. Living in an isolated Himalayan hamlet, 2,500 meters (5,600 feet) above sea level, Govind Singh Rana seems an unlikely candidate for wealth. But by

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IRN: Bhutan fires the imagination of an ideal mountain country with many snow-clad peaks, where people go about their daily chores in serenity, dressed in their national dress, wearing a smile and with a song on their lips. The image of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) that it portrays is ever present. The four pillars

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Alertnet: Barely a month after heavy rains pounded Kenya, many seasonal rivers in the country’s semi-arid east are already drying up, and residents are preparing for the months-long dry season. But some, like Paul Masila and other members of  the Woni Wa Mbee self-help group, are not worried about the looming dry spell. Instead, they

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Deccanherald: Asia is the world’s most water-stressed continent, a situation compounded by China’s hydro-supremacy in the region. Beijing’s recent decision to build a slew of giant new dams on rivers flowing to other countries is thus set to roil riparian relations. China – which already boasts more large dams than the rest of the world

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Sevensisterspost: A new study has confirmed the worst fears of Assam’s anti-dam activists who are opposed to building mega hydel projects in the highly-seismic Northeast, known for its rich biodiversity. Unprecedented dam building in the Indian Himalayas holds serious consequences for biodiversity and could pose a threat to human lives and livelihoods, a team of

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Zee News: Unprecedented dam building in the Indian Himalaya holds serious consequences for biodiversity and could pose a threat to human lives and livelihoods, researchers have found. The team was led by Professor Maharaj K. Pandit from the University Scholars Programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Prof Pandit, who also holds a courtesy

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CSE: Study quantifies the impact of hydel projects on the ecology of the mountain range. THE Himalayas are virtually under bombardment—of dams. They would have the highest dam density in the world, with over a thousand water reservoirs dotting the mountain range in India, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan, over the next few years. These projects

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Business Bhutan: Considered one of the biggest hydropower projects in the country, the 2,560 megawatt Sankosh hydropower project, is all set to get a green signal from the Indian government, but the commencement of the joint venture project will mean serious implications on the environment. According to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report for Sankosh

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SciDevNet: Climate Innovation Centers can promote clean technologies but need backing with a coordinated effort, says policy specialist Ambuj Sagar. Technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help people to adapt to climate change will be a key part of how developing countries respond to the climate challenge. But the relatively limited capabilities of these

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Nature: Himalayan plans pose ecological threat, researchers warn. The days when the gigantic Indian rivers — the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra — roar freely down the steep slopes of the Himalayas may be numbered. Roughly 300 dams are proposed or under construction in the deeply cut valleys of India’s mountainous north, part of a massive

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Taylor Wilmot: In the twentieth century big dams and other development projects were often associated with progress and prosperous economic development for many countries, including India (Khagram, 2005). Dam development projects entice governments with the promise of hydroelectricity, irrigation, and drinking water for their growing populations. They represent an abundant resource to developing countries (Khagram,

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Mr. Shankar Sharma: Energy has become a crucial part of the modern society, so much so that per capita availability of energy is considered as an indicator of Human Development. However, the social, economic and environmental impacts of demand/supply of energy are so great that only a holistic and objective consideration of all the related

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Ekantipur: The Nepali expertise in developing micro-hydropower projects to help rural communities meet their energy demands will soon be imparted to other countries in the region and beyond. Experts with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), under the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, will be offering technical assistance and training in developing micro-hydropower projects

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China.org.cn: Doubling hydroelectricity production by 2050 could prevent annual emissions of up to 3 billion tons of CO2 from fossil-fuel plants, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report released here on Monday. The report entitled “Technology Roadmap: Hydropower,” which is jointly published by the IEA and Brazil’s Mines Ministry, outlined detailed actions “needed

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Chinawaterrisk: At the 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen, China announced that it would reduce its carbon intensity at least 40% by 20201.Achieving this ambitious goal has become an overriding priority for the Chinese government ever since. As a result, the latest 12th Five-Year Plan 2011-2015 (12FYP) has been described as China’s “greenest” five-year plan to

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Huffington post: Climate change is bringing many uncertainties, especially to the world of water. No continent will be harder hit by climate change than Africa. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that African river basins will be especially affected by climate change, and are expected to face worse droughts and more extreme floods

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Deccan Herald: American researchers have found that fluctuating water levels in dams and reservoirs emit large amount of greenhouse gases, the main culprits of global warming. Researchers at Washington State University-Vancouver have documented the emission of greenhouse gases like methane, as water levels go up and down in dams and reservoirs. Methane is 25 times

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Times of India: Researchers have documented the role dams play in global warming and the surges of greenhouse gases as water levels go up and down. Bridget Deemer, doctoral student at Washington State University (WSU)- Vancouver, Canada, measured dissolved gases in the water column of Lacamas Lake in Clark County and found methane emissions jumped

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International Rivers: It’s no secret that in South Asia, dam building is on the rise. India alone has already constructed over 5,000 large dams with many more in the pipeline. The Himalayas have already been targeted by the Indian government, along with the governments of Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, to construct hundreds of mega-dams on

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Huffington post: India-Pakistan Line of Control, July 23 (AlertNet) – A s the silver waters of the Kishanganga rush through this north Kashmir valley, Indian labourers are hard at work on a hydropower project that will dam the river just before it flows across one of the world’s most heavily militarised borders into Pakistan. The

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Dawn: KANZALWAN, India-Pakistan Line of Control (AlertNet): As the silver waters of the Kishanganga rush through this north Kashmir valley, Indian laborers are hard at work on a hydropower project that will dam the river just before it flows across one of the world’s most heavily militarised borders into Pakistan. The hum of excavators echoes

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Dawn: A study conducted by the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) in collaboration with the World Bank has raised many concerns about climatic change in our region and its repercussions. The experts, who carried out the study, warn that if Pakistan does not build dams while finding other ways to salvage the existing water

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Mike Muller argued that China’s investment in dams is good news for Africa. Here, Lori Pottinger writes that large dams are costly and destructive, but Chinese experience in renewables still has a lot to offer. The record of Africa’s large dams is one of widespread environmental destruction to the continent’s major river systems, upon which millions

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Mountain Voice: In a series of Mountain Voice, the Climate Himalaya team interacted with authorities working on energy renewable energy issues in the western Himalayan region of India, to understand that how much scope such mountain states have in energy security and how people could be involved in such processes. What is the scope of

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The Hindu: Scientific management of the glacial rivers and lakes of the Himalayas is the only way to take care of the irrigation and drinking water needs of millions of people in the Gangetic plains. There is no traditional or spiritual method available to us to meet the 21st century demands for water and power.

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GVEP: Determined to be the solution to the problem of poor electricity supply a community in Central Kenya opted to start its own mini hydro project. After some false starts, this venture is progressing thanks in part to GVEP’s support in overcoming obstacles and pitfalls. In recent years, steps have been made towards liberalisation of

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  Himmotthan: Natural flow patterns are the heartbeat of a river. Each component of a flow regime – ranging from low flows to floods play an important role in shaping a river ecosystem and livelihoods of river-dependent communities. While many rivers in Northern India are still in a pristine free-flowing state in the upper reaches,

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PLOS-One: Climate change in the Himalayas, a biodiversity hotspot, home of many sacred landscapes, and the source of eight largest rivers of Asia, is likely to impact the well-being of ~20% of humanity. However, despite the extraordinary environmental, cultural, and socio-economic importance of the Himalayas, and despite their rapidly increasing ecological degradation, not much is

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Assam Tribune: Ignoring the crucial linkages of a river’s upstream, midstream, and downstream flows can endanger not just the river, but human communities and ecology sustained by it. A disregard of ‘environmental flows,’ by construction of dams, has already harmed many rivers in the Western Ghats, giving rise to political as well as environmental issues.

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Time: India’s Wular Lake, a popular picnic and tourist spot nestled in the Kashmir Valley, is an unlikely site for conflict. But India’s plan to build a structure on the Jhelum River at the mouth of the lake that will allow it to release water during the river’s lean winter months has outraged neighboring Pakistan,

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Manjeet’s Blog (Negotiating Everyday): In principle Nepal’s hydropower potential is impressive due to rugged mountain terrain from which snow and rain fed rivers produce significant amount of seasonal water flow. Owing to this natural hydrological processes, Nepal projected an image since 1970s that this country has one of the richest hydropower potential in the world

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The world’s poorest countries can jump directly from the pre-electricity era into a new industrial revolution through an “energy Internet” — the uptake of renewable energy shared through communication technologies, argues economist Jeremy Rifkin. “The great economic revolutions in history occur when new communication technologies converge with new energy systems”, writes Rifkin. And now —

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The Nation: Climate change is one thing and the lack of cooperation between affected countries quite another. Pakistan points the finger of blame at India, while others in the region are also suffering on account of no clear-cut policy on how Himalayan waters are to be shared and conserved. Accords and treaties may have been

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DAWN: Pakistan has decided to challenge in the international court of arbitration a decision of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to grant carbon credits to India on a controversial hydropower project without mandatory clearance of its trans-boundary environmental impact assessment. Simultaneously, the water and power ministry has sought the opinion from the

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Hydropower dams in Himalayas, marketed as clean energy that will earn developers cash credits under carbon-offsetting Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme, appear to fall well short of their goals in Himachal Pradesh where global climate change mitigation goals conflicts with local sustainable development, as a study by German researchers has found out. Recently published in

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Good Environment: This graph from the  Energy Information Administration communicates the reality of renewable energy in America better than any other single source. Renewable energy covers only a small slice, 8 percent, of the country’s needs. And despite the focus on biofuels and solar power, the chart shows that more than a third of that slice

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National Geographic: Google Earth Shows How Dams Could Worsen Climate Change. A project of two NGOs highlights far-ranging effects of damming rivers which is a new interactive Google Earth video tour aims to teach people how damming rivers around the world can exacerbate climate change. The video, created by the nonprofit conservation groups International Rivers

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NDTV India (Video): The video not only raises important questions about one of the Indian Himalayan States, its few Tributaries (Rivers) or about saving the lives of a few Mountain Dwellers, but, it is about status of Himalayas and Hindustan (India) itself. This very interesting video was released by NDTV India on 18 November 2011 

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MRD Journal: The Indus River Basin is characterized by downstream areas with the world’s largest irrigation system, providing food and energy security to more than 215 million people. The arid to semiarid basin is classified as a net water deficit area, but it also suffers from devastating floods. Among the four basin countries, Pakistan is

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CNN: Bhutan is the last of the Himalayan kingdoms. The small country is situated in the nooks and crannies of the highest mountain range on earth. It’s a special place that didn’t have paved roads until the 1960s, was off-limits to foreign tourists until the 1970′s, and didn’t have television until 1999, the last country

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The minutes of First meeting of the Working Group on “Mountain Eco-systems and Challenges Faced by the People living in the Hilly Areas” for formulation of the 12th Five year Plan” is given below, that was held on 28 October 2011 at Yojana Bhavan in New Delhi. It was chaired by Shri B.K. Chaturvedi, Member,

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Project Syndicate: International discussion about China’s rise has focused on its increasing trade muscle, growing maritime ambitions, and expanding capacity to project military power. One critical issue, however, usually escapes attention: China’s rise as a hydro-hegemon with no modern historical parallel. No other country has ever managed to assume such unchallenged riparian preeminence on a

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Suman K A: The National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency, one of the key missions, of the National Action Plan for Climate Change has at its core – unlocking staggering INR 74,000 crore energy efficiency opportunities, reducing annual fuel savings by 23 mtoe, avoiding energy capacity addition worth 19000 MW, and achieving 98 million tCO2-e

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Kuensel Online: Is accelerated development of the hydropower sector in conflict with the environment? Mega Projects 8 October, 2011 – Bhutan ambitious plan to tap 10,000MW of hydropower by 2020 (eight years and two months from now) may be following a clean and green path, but what has not been talked about is how it

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ADB: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing loans of up to $350 million for transmission system upgrades to help the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh take greater advantage of its vast hydropower resources. The ADB Board of Directors has approved the multitranche financing facility for the Himachal Pradesh Clean Energy Transmission Investment Program, with

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IDSA: In recent times, the world has witnessed a major surge in regional unrests caused primarily by the shortage of water. Tension builds up between two or more countries when an effort is made by any upper riparian country to control the waterways of transboundary rivers. Factors like population surge, industrialization and other development activities

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Times of India: The earthquake that ravaged Sikkim on September 18 has had a welcome side-effect. It has sparked a serious debate among people on the issue of dams. Most Sikkimese today have turned against mega dams being built to harness the Teesta river for generating 20,000 MW of power through as many as 28

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IDSA: Institutions are often assessed on the basis of their response to crises. The unfolding flood crisis in Sindh draws attention to the state of institutional response to disasters in Pakistan. Ms. Maurvi Memon, a former PML-Q legislator, has alleged that the flood crisis in Sindh was manmade and that the Meteorological Department and Climate

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Kanglaonline: A one day consultation on dams and development in Manipur was organized by the Citizen Concern for Dams and Development (CCDD) at Manipur Press Club to review the trend of introducing of policies and mega development projects in Manipur. The first session of the consultation was marked by the sharing of views among representatives

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Scientific American: Emissions trading is the foundation of climate policy, but documents further reveal how problematic it is. As the world gears up for the next round of United Nations climate-change negotiations in Durban, South Africa, in November, evidence has emerged that a cornerstone of the existing global climate agreement, the international greenhouse-gas emissions-trading system,

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Down to Earth: Advisory panel members want independent experts to assess large projects. An evaluation report on the Niyamgiri Hills in Odisha by a retired forest official could not differentiate between a tiger and a hyena. The report relates to Vedanta’s controversial bauxite mining bid and is one of the instances of shoddy evaluations quoted

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ScientificAmerican: Dams have been designed for river flows that will soon no longer apply, according to new research Over the past four years, John Matthews has been traveling the world to better understand freshwater and climate change issues. He found that poor planning is creating one of the biggest water-related threats. “We need to think

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BoiOne: The Indus River Basin is characterized by downstream areas with the world’s largest irrigation system, providing food and energy security to more than 215 million people. The arid to semiarid basin is classified as a net water deficit area, but it also suffers from devastating floods. Among the four basin countries, Pakistan is most

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Morung Express: Resisting the construction of Chakpikarong Multipurpose Project Dam in Chandel district of Manipur, aggrieved villagers under the aegis of Anal Naga Tangpi (ANTA) today said that the proposed mega project does not comply with World Commission of Dams (WCD) and therefore violates the Environment Protection Acts besides causing grievous threat to life and

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The world’s population is projected to reach approximately 7 billion by 2012. Much of the growth will be in less economically developed countries in central Asia and South America where demands on water resources are already high and livelihoods are threatened. Many countries in these regions rely on glaciers for domestic, agricultural and industrial water

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