The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
"India would need power by the time Arun III dam stal1$; producing electricity," said Nepal's Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikary in response to a question by Down To Earth during his visit to New Delhi in April. Although the viability of the World Bank-sponsored project hinges on India's purchase of …
LOCATION On the Arun river in Sankhuwasabha district,about 200 km east of Kathmandu TOTAL POTENTIAL OF THE ARUN BASIN 1,045 mw PRE-FEASIBlLITY STUDY March 1985 FEASIBILITY STUDY June 1987 DETAILED ENGINEERING STUDY December 1992 TARGET COMMISSIONING DATE April 1, 2001 TOTAL POWER GENERATION 201 mw (Phase I), 201 mw (Phase …
On January 16, 1994, 2 human rights activists, Gopal Siwakoti and Rajesh Gautam filed a public interest petition in the Supreme Court under Article 16 of the Constitution which recognises the right to information as fundamental. Siwakoti and Gautam went to court with the complaint that they were denied access …
THE World Bank (WR) has admitted that its assessment of the Sardar Sarovar Project did not adhere to many of its own guidelines. In an internal memo prepared by the Operations Evaluations Division, it has described its own approach to the project as "delinquent". The WB's resettlement and rehabilitation guidelines, …
THE setting up ofthe Inspection Panel in September 1993 as a permanent body which will monitor World Bank-funded projects is a significant, far-reaching development. Unfortunately, the World Bank (WB) governing board of executive directors' mode of selection of sensitive areas was highly disappointing. There have been serious objections to the …
THE Independent Inspection Panel of the World Bank ( WB ) has inspired hope among many environmental activists and organisations. They expect it to provide the much-needed scrutiny of the Bank"s activities, many of which aid and abett the wasteful exploitation of natural resources, environmental degradation and consequent human suffering. …
WE CANNOT help being sceptical when the World Bank tells us that it is henceforth going to encourage and practice participatory decisionmaking. The move to have an Inspection Panel is the latest gimmick of the World Bank's (WB), resourceful public relations system. Apart from the fact that such gestures are …
NARMADAs and, Tehris have been hogging the limelight in India, while a more dramatic and potentially devastating dam on the drawing boards of a neighbouring country - Nepal -has hardly been heard of here. The name of the dam is Arun in, a project designed to be constructed on the …
A RLCENT World Bank report says that 25 dams in India out of the 947 surveyed in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu were found unsafe. They were constructed using data vastly underestimating peak flood flows. Postreview estimates of peak flood values are much higher than the earlier data. …
Pakistani environmentalists in Islamabad are seeing red as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) recklessly strips away tree and vegetation cover. The reason for the ruthless deforestation: the prevalence of respiratory diseases triggered off by an exotic plant in Islamabad. Experts, however, don't buy this explanation. They point out the CDA …
In a serious bid to tackle AIDS, the Union government has launched a Rs 222.6 crore World Bank-assisted plan for the prevention and control of the disease. Part of the funding for the multisectoral programme has come from a $84 million (about Rs 252 crore) soft loan from the WB, …
HUMANS, their thoughts and activities are the source of all Earthly evil and good. The Cold War has had a destabilising effect on many societies, in the short term. Unemployment and poverty are gnawing away at less developed societies, corroding the existing value system. The substantial material progress achieved during …
Following recent disclosures of its newly established projects inspection panel (Down To Earth, November 15, 1994), the World Bank is on the mat again. The panel, established in November 1994 on the insistence of 4 Nepalese NGOs, maintains that Nepal's proposed Arun III dam involves "apparent violations of policy that …
Health care might become a major plank of the World Bank's list of projects. This year, the Bank will lend at least US $60 million for "micro-nutrient projects" in various countries to combat vitamin a, iodine and iron deficiencies. The biggest project, to be funded along with un agencies, is …
The high cost of government-imposed environmental safeguards for the Subarnarekha barrage project in West Bengal's Midnapore district threatens to make the project "unviable". The conditions, laid down by the Union ministry of environment and forests, will hike the project cost from the sanctioned estimate of Rs 226 crore to over …
The World Bank plans to sow "Seeds of Hope" in war-ravaged Rwanda. The Bank wants to launch this initiative to restore agriculture in this impoverished African nation. Rwanda was virtually self-sufficient in food before the civil unrest in 1994, with 91 per cent of the population involved in farming. "But …
A World Bank environmental strategy plan warns that the Middle East and North Africa are heading for an environmental disaster. The report says that a quarter of the Arab World has no access to safe water supplies, while 1/5th of its population lives in cities with "unacceptable levels" of air …
Russia's poor environmental record has come under severe global scrutiny after the Komi oil spill in October, branded third largest in history, and roughly 8 times the volume of the Exxon Valdez spill. Though experts contest the size of the spillage -- ranging from the us Department of Energy's estimate …
THE 12 million-plus population in the one-time Mughal capital of Agra is rather bemused by the brouhaha over the decay of the Taj Mahal. Naturally, while the city in which they live is choked with smog and its streets littered with filth, the preservation of natural heritage is the last …
THE 50th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) has certainly not been an auspicious one. Since early this year, these agencies have been ' facing a lot of flak. Environmentalists have constantly accused them of flouting basic environmental norms, and going ahead …
