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. [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 — [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The economic progress of South Asia has accelerated. It is the outcome of the economic progress of East Asian countries that put the rest of the Asian countries under pressure for competition. In recent decades, the combined average economic growth rate of this region exceeds 6 per cent per year. This needs a large quantity [...]
Bhutan Today: The Prime Minister, Lyonchhen Jigmi Y Thinley, has issued a dire warning about the impact of Himalayan climate change, saying it could wreck Bhutan’s ambitious plans to be a world leader in hydropower. However, the country is powerless to prevent changes caused by shifting weather patterns that threaten regional water supplies and plans [...]
Climate Connect News: A new small hydro power project has been accredited under the Renewable Energy Certificate scheme. The 5 MW was accredited by the Directorate of Energy, Himachal Pradesh. The project is owned by Ginni Global Limited of the Jaipuria Group. This is the third project to be accredited from Himachal Pradesh. With this [...]
MYsinchew: Bhutan’s prime minister has issued a dire warning about the impact of Himalayan climate change, saying it could wreck the tiny kingdom’s ambitious plans to be a world leader in hydropower. The isolated, mountainous nation sandwiched between India and China is famed for pursuing “happiness” for its citizens instead of orthodox economic growth, with [...]
STLToday: Last week, the McClatchy newspapers reported that the Obama administration is considering providing seed money for a $12 billion hydroelectric dam on the Indus River in northernmost Pakistan. Just wait for Congress to get back from vacation. A lot of them, Republicans and Democrats alike, are going to hate this idea. It may be [...]
Kuenselonline: In an effort to discourage expansion of nuclear power generation by the government of India, Bhutan is encouraging Nepal to increase exploitation of its hydropower potential, it was revealed at the end of the ‘happiness and economic development’ conference, yesterday (12 Aug). While Nepal has vast hydropower potential, not much of it is tapped. [...]
EcoSeed: The World Bank has signed a $648 million loan agreement with Tehri Hydro Development Corp., a joint venture corporation focused on developing, operating and maintaining hydro projects in India, for a 444 megawatt run-of-river hydropower project. The bank’s loan will help finance the construction of the Vishnugad Popalkoti Hydro Electric Project on the Alaknanda [...]
The NEWS: Pakistan’s energy sector crisis is posing challenges to the country’s national security now. Around six to eight hours of daily loadshedding in the urban areas and a twelve to eighteen hours in rural areas, coupled with unemployment also caused by energy shortage in the industrial sector, has led to significant vulnerabilities that are [...]
Shankar Sharma: As per media reports Indian officials have recently signed an agreement with the World Bank (WB) to use a $1 billion loan to finance the first major new effort in more than 20 years to cleanse river Ganga. While the decision by the concerned authorities to cleanse river Ganga is wholly welcome, what [...]
The News: The government has submitted standard operating procedures (SoPs) with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for monitoring the future award of carbon credits to the Indian projects located on the waters of western rivers, according to a draft proposal of Pakistan Commission on Indus Water (PCIW). A complete modus operandi [...]
S Sen, principal advisor, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), is a key member of the 12-member CII delegation currently visiting Nepal. Sen is regarded as having an in-depth knowledge about the investment prospects in South Asian countries including Nepal. He actively worked for the formation of CII Joint Task Forces, which are high-level forums of [...]
Down to Earth: Dam proposed on the last unrestricted tributary of Alaknanda stirs valley residents. Pindar valley falls in a sensitive seismic zone (Photo: Matu People’s Organisation)The people of Chepdu village in Pindar valley treasure the fair held every June in memory of an army man from the region who was posthumously awarded the Ashok [...]
IR: India’s rivers and streams are threatened by a massive hydropower rollout. Large projects in the northern, mountainous states will have the biggest impacts, but the smaller ones, which are cropping up all over the country, are having serious impacts on local people’s lives. Indeed, the High Court of the state of Karnataka has halted [...]
The Ganges BDC R4D program was launched in Bangladesh on 1 June 2011. The event sponsored by the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) was held in their conference center and chaired by the BARC Executive Director Dr. Wais Kabir. Presentations on the CPWF and the Ganges BDC were given by Boru Douthwaite of the CPWF [...]
NepaliTimes: Protecting the Karnali, Madi and Tamor as free-flowing rivers will save them for future generations. It has become a cliché to say that Nepal’s greatest asset is its rivers. Besides our three great rivers, there are nearly 6,000 smaller ones that drain the southern slopes of the Himalaya. But when people speak of Nepal’s [...]
My Himachal: Forest rights in high altitude tribal district of Kinnaur has become a bone of contention between the state and the natives who are opposing diversion of forested lands for construction of a hydropower project. President of Kinnaur Him Lok Jagriti Manch, RS Negi says the government has not validated converting of customary forest [...]
IBTimes: Even though India, the world’s largest democracy, is an aspiring global power, the country continues to pursue a highly reactive foreign policy, especially when it comes to non-traditional security issues. The absence of a grand strategy or template to meet non-traditional security threats becomes conspicuous whenever the country is confronted with security challenges on [...]
Assam Tribune: In the present juncture, it has become imperative for the four riparian nations – China, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh to enter into a water-sharing treaty for sustainable, equitable and judicious exploitation of water resources of the Brahmaputra river in a climate of trust and harmony. This observation was made by Prof Nayan Sarma, [...]
TheWorld: The Kingdom of Bhutan is known for breathtaking views of rivers and streams cascading down from snow-packed glaciers high in the Himalayas. Until recently, Bhutanese were content to enjoy the view, use a little water for crops, and a bit more for hydropower, for local use. But lately, Bhutan has been getting more ambitious [...]
Asian Power: Hydropower Potential in Asia Hydropower constitutes 21% of the world’s electricity generating capacity. The theoretical potential of worldwide hydropower is 2,800 GW, about four times greater than the amount that has been tapped. Yet, the actual amount of electricity that will ever be generated by hydropower will be much lower than the theoretical [...]
Assam Tribune: Under the impact of the resultant flow reduction due to any possible future diversion of the Yarlung Tsangpo to acute water scarce regions in northern part of China, the river morphology in Assam is likely to undergo further intense braiding along with harmful rise in average stream bed level. As a consequence, even [...]
NetIndian: The World Bank has approved a $ 648 million loan to THDC India Ltd for constructing the Vishnugad Pipalkoti Hydroelectric Project on the river Alaknanda in Uttarakhand, which is expected to generate an estimated 1,665 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year to help relieve India s chronic power shortage. A press release from the [...]
Guardian: We are heading for a global succeed-or-perish contest among the energy big hitters – but who will be the winners and losers? A 30-year war for energy pre-eminence? You wouldn’t wish it even on a desperate planet. But that’s where we’re headed, and there’s no turning back. From 1618 to 1648, Europe was engulfed [...]
Articlesbase: Hydropower is known as the energy source that allows it possible to create electricity without the use of fossil fuels. Transforming the energy created by the movement of water into useable energy seems to be an excellent idea. The source of the hydropower energy is of course, is of course abundant expanses of water of which [...]
Livemint: The environment ministry has approved a $920 million (Rs.4,131 crore) hydropower project in Uttarakhand on stricter conditions, clearing the way for the World Bank to provide 70% of its funding. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said in a text message that all clearances have been accorded to the 444 megawatt (MW) Vishnugad-Pipalkoti project in Chamoli [...]
Tribune Pakistan: Pakistan shares it’s water resources with not just China and India but Afghanistan as well which was a challenge that needed to be addressed because it could lead to increased tensions between these countries. During a policy dialogue held here at National University of Sciences & Technology (Nust) Dr Shahbaz Khan Chief of [...]
Business Standard: A few years ago, Anil P Joshi, a social activist from the Kotdwar area of Uttarakhand, took up the task of bringing back to life defunct watermills in Uttarakhand, with the aim of producing green power. Joshi, who heads Hesco, a Dehradun-based NGO, carried out research work to revive the age-old watermills in [...]
Organiser: A vast and densely populated region of North-east India that depends on water from Brahmaputra and its tributaries is feeling agitated over China’s ambitious efforts to redraw its water map. China’s reported plan to divert the Brahmaputra from its upper reaches is being seen as a direct affront to India and a violation of [...]
India Today: Hydropower projects in Himachal Pradesh can accelerate melting of glaciers in the Himalayan region, a study by the South Asia Network on Dams Rivers and People (SANDARP) has warned. The field level study carried out by the environmental group on the four major Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded projects in the state show [...]
International Rivers: According to a new report which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published today, the sky is the limit for the expansion of renewable energy. With an investment of slightly less than 1% of global GDP, renewable energy could contribute up to 43% of the world’s energy supply by 2030, and 77% [...]
ZeeNews: In a new development, which is likely to cause fresh tension in Sino-India ties, reports, Monday, claimed that China is planning to divert the waters of Brahmaputa River, from the upper reaches, in order to tackle the severe drought situation prevailing in the country. The development comes nearly a year after China began [...]
