Order of National Green Tribunal (Central Zone Bench, Bhopal) in the matter of Kamlesh Roj Vs State of Rajasthan & Others dated 21/01/2025. The issue raised in the application are protection of historical Hingonia Dam from the encroachment from the local residence violating the environmental norms and damaging the area …
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 …
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 …
NGOS in Kenya are bewildered. In the beginning of March they were enthusiastic: the Tana and Athi River Development Authority (TARDA) and the sponsors, the Japan International Development Agency (JICA), had invitated them to a workshop to discuss the pros and cons of the upcoming hydroelectric power project over River …
A euphemistically named agreement for the "sustainable development of the Mekong river basin" has generated a storm of controversy. The rum- blings were heard almost as soon as the accord was signed between the so-called Lower Mekong countries - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam - in the Ist week of …
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 …
Nepal's controversial Arun III dam is scheduled to come under withering scrutiny. In early February, the World Bank gave its independent inspection panel a green signal to conduct a formal investigation of the project. The panel's mandate will focus on specific aspects of the Arun project which may violate the …
THE Chinese government hails it as the second largest construction since the Great Wall. Premier Li Peng is its staunchest advocate. Environmentalists condemn it as an environmental disaster waiting to happen. This is the Three Gorges, the mammoth hydroelectric dam that will harness the turbulent Yangtze river with a 185-metre …
The Punjab government's proposal to increase the height of the 531-metre Thein dam on the Ravi river by 9 m has created considerable consternation in the Jammu and Kashmir township of Basoli. Residents of the town, which lies at the border of the 2 states near the submergence zone of …
On September 3, the Argentinian president Carlos Menem inaugurated the first of the 20 turbines of the 3,200MW Yacyreta dam, which he once called country's "monument to corruption". The Yacyreta project on the Parana river, the result of an agreement in 1958 between Argentina and Paraguay, was dogged by charges …
IF THE anti-dam movements built around the Narmada and Tehri projects have made people aware of environmental issues, they have also managed to detract attention from similar movements in other parts of India. Two such movements have taken shape in the northeast, a region that has the potential to meet …
Kulekhani dam, Nepal's only high dam hydroelectricity project, faces the unwelcome prospect of closure in less than seven years if the present high levels of sedimentation continue. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is undertaking topographical and geological studies to identify possible sites for check dams to trap silt. "We would …
THE Narmada Bachao Andolan's decision to approach the Supreme Court of India has now become the crux of its continuing agitation. The NBA filed a comprehensive petition on April 17 pleading that the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam be halted. On their part, the respondents -- 4 state governments, …
THE Chinese government, on the face of it: the saga of a mere mortal whose ideas on democracy and free speech exposed a state at its Draconian best begins on February 28, 1989. A book, condemning the construction of the world's largest dam in the Three Gorges area of the …
Little has been done in India to study dam-induced seismicity despite a lot of environmental heat and dust. To bridge the gap, B K Rastogi and R K Chadha of the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad have proposed to study the seismicity around the Koyna dam in Maharashtra. …
MALAYSIA's Pergau dam is once again in the news, much to the discomfiture of the British government. The latest blow is the British High Court's green signal to the World Development Movement -- a pressure group on Third World issues -- to apply for a judicial review of Britain's funding …
EVERYTHING in Thailand is daringly up front -- except for a serious water crisis. A transit passenger in the luxurious Bangkok airport who heads for the toilet for a quick shave risks inviting more than a few reproachful glances if he keeps the immaculately-polished taps carelessly turned on. The Thai …
AS GUJARAT gears up to face another summer of water riots in the cities, the farmers of Shankerpura village in Panchmahal district will continue to irrigate their fields: they have their lift irrigation systems, run collectively and set up with help from the Sadguru Water and Development Foundation (SWDF). Shankerpura …
INUNDATION is nothing new for the Dutch. A good part of the Netherlands -- 25 per cent of it actually -- lies below sea level and would have been inundated regularly had the Dutch not taken steps to keep out the sea. Right from medieval times, dykes, dams and canals …
FOR sheer numbers, the coming together last fortnight of the dam-affected people of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan at Deoli in the Tonk district of the last named state was a small affair, but nonetheless significant. It is yet another reminder of the myriad of struggles over the destruction of …
