tagged w/ Hydropower
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I'm heartbroken. How much more devastation will be wrecked in pristine places for corporate greed? And because it is a land where indigenous people make their home, they mean nothing? Brazil just passed the bill to expand deforestation in the Amazon after activists had been murdered, and they now approve this mega dam which will be the third largest (Not learning from the Three Gorges Dam) against the voices and wishes of the indigenous people who live there who will now see their forests flooded and their way of life ended.This is also in the same area where we see increasing deforestation due to GM soy cultivation. The effects of destroying the lungs of our planet should be obvious to anyone with common sense. The people have vowed to fight on. So please if you would, sign the petition included here. Any project that will cause the devastation this will simply cannot be called sustainable.
http://amazonwatch.org/take-action/stop-the-belo-monte-monster-dam
You can sign the petition here.I'm heartbroken. How much more devastation will be wrecked in pristine places for... more
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Paris has been on an alternative energy roll as of late: installing hydropower turbines in the Seine, testing the limits of urban wind power and using solar power to run its public toilets. Now the French capital is going further: using heat from wastewater in its sewers to keep the students at a local school group warm and toasty.
:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/04/a-paris-school-turns-to-the-sewers-for-a-sustainable-heat-source.phpParis has been on an alternative energy roll as of late: installing hydropower... more
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suzane
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1 year ago
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The wall of water raced through narrow Himalayan gorges in northeast India, gathering speed as it raked the banks of towering trees and boulders. When the torrent struck their island in the Brahmaputra river, the villagers remember, it took only moments to obliterate their houses, possessions and livestock.
No one knows exactly how the disaster happened, but everyone knows whom to blame: neighboring China.
"We don't trust the Chinese," says fisherman Akshay Sarkar at the resettlement site where he has lived since the 2000 flood. "They gave us no warning. They may do it again."
About 500 miles east, in northern Thailand, Chamlong Saengphet stands in the Mekong river, in water that comes only up to her shins. She is collecting edible river weeds from dwindling beds. A neighbor has hung up his fishing nets, his catches now too meager.
Using words bordering on curses, they point upstream, toward China.
Blame game
The blame game, voiced in vulnerable river towns and Asian capitals from Pakistan to Vietnam, is rooted in fear that China's accelerating program of damming every major river flowing from the Tibetan plateau will trigger natural disasters, degrade fragile ecologies, divert vital water supplies.
A few analysts and environmental advocates even speak of water as a future trigger for war or diplomatic strong-arming, though others strongly doubt it will come to that. Still, the remapping of the water flow in the world's most heavily populated and thirstiest region is happening on a gigantic scale, with potentially strategic implications.
On the eight great Tibetan rivers alone, almost 20 dams have been built or are under construction while some 40 more are planned or proposed.
China is hardly alone in disrupting the region's water flows. Others are doing it with potentially even worse consequences. But China's vast thirst for power and water, its control over the sources of the rivers and its ever-growing political clout make it a singular target of criticism and suspicion.
"Whether China intends to use water as a political weapon or not, it is acquiring the capability to turn off the tap if it wants to — a leverage it can use to keep any riparian neighbors on good behavior," says Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at New Delhi's Center for Policy Research and author of the forthcoming "Water: Asia's New Battlefield."
Analyst Neil Padukone calls it "the biggest potential point of contention between the two Asian giants," China and India. But the stakes may be even higher since those eight Tibetan rivers serve a vast west-east arc of 1.8 billion people stretching from Pakistan to Vietnam's Mekong river delta.
Lack of transparency?
Suspicions are heightened by Beijing's lack of transparency and refusal to share most hydrological and other data. Only China, along with Turkey, has refused to sign a key 1997 U.N. convention on transnational rivers.
Beijing gave no notice when it began building three dams on the Mekong — the first completed in 1993 — or the $1.2 billion Zangmu dam, the first on the mainstream of the 1,790-mile Brahmaputra which was started last November and hailed in official media as "a landmark priority project."
The 2000 flood that hit Sarkar's village, is widely believed to have been caused by the burst of an earthen dam wall on a Brahmaputra tributary. But China has kept silent.
"Until today, the Indian government has no clue about what happened," says Ravindranath, who heads the Rural Volunteer Center. He uses only one name.
Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has also warned of looming dangers stemming from the Tibetan plateau.
"It's something very, very essential. So, since millions of Indians use water coming from the Himalayan glaciers... I think you (India) should express more serious concern. This is nothing to do with politics, just everybody's interests, including Chinese people," he said in New Delhi last month.
Beijing normally counters such censure by pointing out that the bulk of water from the Tibetan rivers springs from downstream tributaries, with only 13-16 percent originating in China.
Officials also say that the dams can benefit their neighbors, easing droughts and floods by regulating flow, and that hydroelectric power reduces China's carbon footprint.
China "will fully consider impacts to downstream countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu recently told The Associated Press. "We have clarified several times that the dam being built on the Brahmaputra River has a small storage capacity. It will not have large impact on water flow or the ecological environment of downstream."
For some of China's neighbors, the problem is that they too are building controversial dams and may look hypocritical if they criticize China too loudly.
The four-nation Mekong River Commission has expressed concerns not just about the Chinese dams but about a host of others built or planned in downstream countries.
In northeast India, a broad-based movement is fighting central government plans to erect more than 160 dams in the region, and Laos and Cambodia have proposed plans for 11 Mekong dams, sparking environmental protest.
cont.The wall of water raced through narrow Himalayan gorges in northeast India, gathering... more
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Egypt is a country which does not have the luxury of abundant rains and therefore depends on the Nile for 90% of its sustenance. It is also the spiritual center for the people there as they believe the Gods sent floods during the time of the pharoahs which allowed them food and for the pharoahs to build their tombs. The waters of the great Nile were then seen by Egypt as belonging to no one but them. Religion and politics in the 21st century once again now stands in the way of an equitable agreement that will preserve the Nile's waters for all while also understanding it belongs to none.
Egypt's control of the Nile which amounts to 74% of its waters has been intact since the 1929 agreement with then colonial occupant Britain. This antiquated arrangement which gives Egypt access to the majority of the water simply cannot be sustained in modern times, yet Egypt's Mubarek and Bashir in Sudan have not budged in changing it. The agreement also calls for all upstream projects first needing the consent of Egypt and Sudan in order to go forward, however, Ethiopia which suffers from drought and sees the Blue Nile as sacred has challenged that by building dams for irrigation and a current larger hydropower dam.
Drought now plagues this area as well which has increased demand for water as well as greater demand for energy even though it has been noted that the Aswan Dam in Egypt has hurt the soil's health. Revenge tactics in now building an overabundance of dams that defeat the purpose of equitable sharing will not help any side in this if it does nothing to truly provide water to its people, especially in light of other factors such as climate change contributing to sea level rise.
Last May the upstream countries including Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia met giving Egypt and Sudan one year to give an answer regarding a more equitable sharing of the Nile's sacred waters. What could give them more clout in coming to an agreement is the independence vote in South Sudan which would see another country on their side in splitting Bashir's influence in Sudan.
There are many geopolitical angles taking shape regarding what has only amounted to a war of words to this point. It will then be interesting to see with South Sudan gaining independence along with the current events in Egypt how this all unfolds in perhaps now working to secure a fair and equitable agreement regarding the waters of the Nile while also respecting its history and sacred traditions in escaping what will otherwise be the beginning of the water wars of the 21st Century.Egypt is a country which does not have the luxury of abundant rains and therefore... more
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How unconscienable is this! The Brazilian government is now moving ahead on a project that will result in the construction of the third largest dam in the world in one of the most diverse and ecologically rich areas of the world: the Amazon. It is to be constructed on the Xingu River which is home to the Paquacamba and Arara indigenous peoples.
It will divert 80% of the river from its original course, thus leaving swaths of indigenous land in drought while flooding over 100,000 acres of rainforest and displacing 20- 40,000 people. Once again we see shortsightedness at a time when we need to see the big picture. Hydroelectricity in areas such as this in an age of global warming and drought is a short term solution that will only bring long term consequences to environment, economy, culture, and also the climate balance of the planet.
Solar energy is the one renewable energy source that is most viable here that will also preserve the environment, water resources and culture of the indigenous peoples who call this area their home. This action will then in turn spawn multiple dam projects all the way up the Amazon that will only displace more people when it is not necessary.
It is heartbreaking to see what is being done to the last vestiges of ecological richness that we must preserve for the future. There is still time however to tell the Brazilian government you oppose this. I will post a link below where you can do this.
Thanks.How unconscienable is this! The Brazilian government is now moving ahead on a project... more
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What happens if Lake Mead drops too low to generate electricity at Hoover Dam?
The shutdown of one of the largest electrical power plants in the Southwest will begin with air bubbles on a turbine inside the Hoover Dam. The bubbles form when low water levels in Lake Mead, the reservoir behind the dam, create pressure differentials in the water flowing into the generators. As they move from areas of low pressure to high, the bubbles collapse and explode, scouring the turbine blades. The generating unit will then start to buck and vibrate, the blades will become pocked and pitted, and the whole thing will eventually need to be shuttered, eliminating the power source that supplies 29 million people in the Southwest with a portion of their electricity.
For the last eight weeks, Choke Point: U.S. has explored vivid examples of the collision between rising energy demand and diminishing reserves of fresh water. What clearly appears to be an unavoidable day of reckoning at Hoover Dam is, arguably, the most striking example in the country of the confrontation between the two resources.
A prolonged dry spell, lasting over a decade, is steadily draining the water sources that power Hoover Dam’s giant turbines and has left Lake Mead at only 41 percent full. The lake has dropped 130 feet since 1999 and is now at 1,084 feet, depths not seen since 1956. The Bureau of Reclamation projects it will shrink another two feet by next month, reaching its lowest elevation since the reservoir was filled in the 1930s.
Power generation has declined in tandem. The falling water levels have prompted federal managers to reduce the Hoover Dam’s hydroelectric generating capacity by 33 percent. If drought conditions continue in the Colorado River Basin; if climate change brings the hydrologic strictures predicted; and if water allocations to the basin states aren’t reduced in line with anticipated lower flows, what was once (and for some, still is) unthinkable might happen. There won’t be enough water to power the dam’s generators, thus shutting down the plant and creating energy uncertainty for millions of people in the region.
It is an outcome that would destabilize energy markets in the Southwest, send retail customers that serve millions of residents to the spot market to buy power at up to five times the cost and dissolve the illusion that rivers are infinitely malleable to our own purposes.
Rough Zones
A dam’s electrical output is partly a function of the height of its reservoir. More water equals more pressure, which equals more energy. The total capacity at Hoover is now 1,617 megawatts—a 20 percent decrease from its designed capacity of 2,080 megawatts. Every foot of elevation loss reduces the power potential by 5.7 megawatts.
Experts don’t know what will happen if the water drops below 1,050 feet, which represents the bottom of the efficiency curve for the current turbines, where more water is needed to produce an equivalent amount of electricity. Such low depths increase the rough zones for the turbines—the generating range in which vibration and cavitation threaten to damage the unit. At extremely low lake levels, like the ones Mead is fast approaching, those rough zones — which usually occur in a narrow production band at medium capacity — could expand to fill the entire generating range, making the turbines vulnerable at any speed. But this unprecedented scenario would be a mystery even to the staff of the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dam.
“Honestly, we’ve never been that low, so we don’t know what it will look like,” said Hoover Facility Manager Pete DiDonato. “A lot depends on what the rough zones look like as the lake drops. We’re getting into uncharted territory.”
cont.What happens if Lake Mead drops too low to generate electricity at Hoover Dam?... more
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Have the climate wars begun? The whole region of Espinar, in Peru, is outraged about the proposed irrigation scheme that will deprive them of water.
The plan was to go from the Four Lakes district in Peru's Cusco province up to the communities in the Espinar region, another three hours and 600m up the Andes mountainsides into the high pastures. These villages are more than 4,300m high (14,000ft), some of the remotest and highest inhabited in the world.
But we nearly didn't get there because the city of Yauri, where we were to stay, was in lockdown over water. The following day, we were told, there would be a total strike. No one would be able to get in or out.
We pass road blocks set up by the strikers and reach the city late at night. The next morning we meet the strike leader Nestor Cuti. This is no ordinary dispute over water, he says. The people of Espinar know well that climate change is already drying up their rivers and is likely to lead to desertification of the whole region. As it is, Yauri only gets around two hours of water a day. In 20 years time, if trends go on, there will be nothing.
The whole region is outraged that the river Apurimac ("Our river"), which is a relative trickle right now but a considerable force in the rainy season, is about to be be hijacked. The government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the neighbouring province of Arequipa, to build a giant reservoir from where the water would be used to provide hydroelectric power and irrigation. Sounds good? Not for the people of Espinar, who stand to actually lose the little water they have. The benefit will be exported to rich farmers growing food for export on the Pacific coast.
This, says Cuti, is a climate change strike. "They are condemning us to a slow death", he said. "In the future we know we will have less water. We cannot trust the rainy season any more. Every year the water levels are diminishing. Climate change and global warming indicate in the next years we will have even less. You don't need to be clever to see climate change is affecting everything here."
We leave the deserted city of closed shops and armed police and head into the hills outside Espinar. Here the villagers say they are ready to come down and show solidarity with their townsfolk.
"Here we had snow and ice on all the hills. We don't any more," says Elias Paccop, president of Huayhuasi. "All these lands had water but no more. Our grandparents lived very differently to us. It used to rain from October to April, and May, June and July were frosty. We used to use the snow melt water. Now we have nothing. Before we could have 300 to 400 sheep and llamas; now we have 20 to 30 and no more."
But there is clearly hope. Oxfam and its local partner, the NGO Asociacion Proyeccion, have started a climate adaptation demonstration project with one farmer of what can be done with the diminishing water that falls. All around Huayhuasi, the land has been burned yellow by the semi-permanent drought. The farmer's is green. A simple reservoir, fed from the hills several miles away, is enough to provide pasture for his animals, a small fish farm, and better quality water.
Down in the city, hundreds of police have dispersed the demonstrations and the protest has moved to a nearby copper mine, which is accused of polluting the rivers. Stones are thrown, shots are fired and several people are arrested.
The man from the environment ministry tells us that there are around 1,000 ongoing conflicts over water in this one region alone. More than 40 of them are potentially serious, he says.
Given his comments, it is perhaps no surprise to hear that the train services to Machu Picchu have been suspended because of the protests.
Is this the future everywhere? Have the climate wars begun?Have the climate wars begun? The whole region of Espinar, in Peru, is outraged about... more
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Giant hydroelectric dams being built or planned in remote areas of Brazil, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Peru and Guyana will devastate tribal communities by forcing people off their land or destroying hunting and fishing grounds, according to a report by Survival International today.
The first global assessment of the impact of the dams on tribes suggests more than 300,000 indigenous people could be pushed towards economic ruin and, in the case of some isolated Brazilian groups, to extinction.
The dams are intended to provide much-needed,low-carbon electricity for burgeoning cities, but the report says tribal people living in their vicinity will gain little or nothing. Most of the power generated will be taken by large industries, it concludes.
At least 200,000 people from eight tribes are threatened and a further 200,000 people will be adversely affected by the Gibe III dam on the Omo river in Ethiopia. Ten thousand people in Sarawak, Malaysia, have been displaced by the Bakun dam,which is expected to open next year, and a series of Latin American dams could force many thousands of people off their land.
The authors say enthusiasm for large dams is resurfacing, driven by a powerful international lobby presenting them as a significant solution to climate change. Lyndsay Duffield, said: "The lessons learned [about the human impact of large dams]last century are being ignored, and tribal peoples worldwide are again being sidelined, their rights violated and their lands destroyed."
The report says the World Bank is one of the biggest funders of destructive dams, despite worldwide criticism in the 1990s for supporting such projects. Its portfolio now stands at $11bn, with funding up more than 50% on 1997.
The UN now subsidises dam building via the clean development mechanism (CDM), which allows rich countries to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in clean energy in poor countries. The watchdog group CDM Watch says more than a third of all CDM-registered projects in 2008 were for hydropower, making them the most common type of project vying for carbon credits.
Concern is growing over the role of China, now the world's largest builder and funder of big dams. The Three Gorges Corporation, firm behind the controversial Three Gorges dam, which has displaced more than a million people from around the Yangtze river in the last 20 years, has been contracted to build a dam on the land of the Penan tribe in Sarawak. China's biggest state bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, may fund Gibe III in Ethiopia, to be Africa's tallest. The Chinese government has financed the majority of dams built in China, which account for about half the global total of large dams.
The report says tribes have borne the brunt of the development over the last 30 years. In India, at least 40% of people displaced by dams and other developmentprojects are tribal, though they make up just 8% of the country's population. Almost all of the large dams built or proposed in the Philippines have been on the land of the country's indigenous people.
The report accuses banks and dam builders of consistently underestimating the number of tribal people affected. "There is an endemic tendency within the dam industry to significantly underestimate the number of people to be affected by their projects," it says.
"The World Bank's review of big dam projects over 10 years found that the number of people actually evicted was nearly 50% higher than the planning estimates."
Survival International called for all hydroelectric dams on tribal peoples' land to be halted unless the tribes have given full consent. "In the case of isolated or uncontacted tribes, where consultation is not possible, there should be no development of hydroelectric dams on their territories," it said.Giant hydroelectric dams being built or planned in remote areas of Brazil, Ethiopia,... more
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An excellent candidate location for a deep underground laboratory with more than 2500 m of rock overburden has been identified at Sichuan Province in China. The experiments require ultra-low background techniques to suppress background events, similar to those of double beta decay experiment, neutrino experiment, proton decay experiment, and so on. http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/your-details/387-laboratory-in-chinaAn excellent candidate location for a deep underground laboratory with more than 2500... more
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worrg
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1 year ago
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Many countries, especially in Africa, use hydroelectric dams to produce nearly all their electricity.
The threat of more extreme drought from climate change is an uncertain variable for many hydroelectric producers. Climate models predict an overall decrease in precipitation and river runoff for the mid-latitude, sub-tropic and dry-tropic areas-–where hydropower is currently the primary source of electricity.
Persistent low water levels in rivers and reservoir cause power cuts, which hinder economic growth and reduce revenue from electricity sales, limiting the ability of an electric utility to maintain the dam.
Some countries have recognized the risk and are already moving toward a more diversified energy future.
After a 2009 drought that led to two months of power rationing, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said “the country can no longer continue to rely on hydro-electric power supply,” Business Week reported. Nearly 70 percent of its electricity comes from hydropower.
Kenya is seeking up to $1 billion from international bond markets to finance geothermal and wind energy projects, Business Week reports.
cont.Many countries, especially in Africa, use hydroelectric dams to produce nearly all... more
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At least another 300,000 people living near the Three Gorges Dam will have to be relocated to protect the environment. This is in addition to the 1.138 million people already relocated for the world's largest hydropower project, a local migration official said yesterday.
As part of the nation's strategy to provide cheap energy and prevent flood and draught, the project began in 1992 and began water reserving and hydro-electricity harnessing in 2008. Officials have "basically" finished the first phase of resettling about 1.3 million people in Chongqing and Hubei province, a local government work report said.
"A total 54.18-billion yuan investment has been designated to facilitate the migration project that helped 1.138 million displaced Chongqing people settle down," Chongqing acting mayor Huang Qifan said at an ongoing annual conference of the city's People's Congress.
However, the deputy director of the migration bureau of the heavy-weighted Wanzhou district of Chongqing, which used to be home for one-fifth of the total migration population, told China Daily yesterday that at least another 300,000 people would have to move out of the reservoir area.
"An eco-screen, or buffer belt, is waiting for approval to be built alongside the reservoir to improve the water quality of the Yangtze River streams and reduce the contamination from residents living nearby," said Hu Jiahai, who was also a deputy of the local people's congress.
"Additionally, more people will have to move out of the area to avoid geographic hazards, like landslides, caused by the dam that tames water levels rising or falling between 145 m to 175 m every year to produce electricity."
He said the actual number depends on the assessment of the geology of the dam area.
According to Hu, ecology protection and hazards prevention are just two major tasks of a proposed follow-up dam project, which also has to address legacy problems from the early migration period, the need for job training of the migrants, and economic development of the area to create new jobs.
The Three Gorges Project Construction Committee Executive Office under the State Council had designated the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission to draft a general plan for the next 10 years.
"This is not a proposal from local to central government, but a general plan the State Council is pushing forward. Therefore, it is very likely to be taken into action soon," Hu said.
Hu revealed the plan has been submitted to the State Council, and is expected to be carried out in 2010 and get its budget "that would be no less than the previous 40 billion yuan to compensate migrants during the dam-building period".
But one problem is that the new migrants will cause even more overcrowding in the area near the dam.
According to a 2009 survey conducted by the Chongqing Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), population density in the reservoir area has reached 338 people per sq km, which is 2.1 times the national average.
The report also said "land for industrial use is lacking."
Many people living in the submerged reservoir area reportedly have already relocated to neighboring provinces or cities downstream of the river.
Also, rampant geographic hazards threaten the reservoir area.
A survey by relevant authorities in 2007 found 9,324 sites were potentially threatened by geographic hazards, including 3,812 new ones that have emerged since 2003 because of water reserving and rainfalls, according to the latest report from the Chongqing committee of CPPCC.
The report said that since 2001, some 53,025 people have been resettled to avoid the hazards.
In addition, 243 dangerous geographic problems occurred around the Chongqing section of the reservoir area since 2008, the report said.
About 22,355 people have been affected by those cases, which caused 640 million yuan in damage, the report said.
In the next three years, bank slumps and landslides are likely, while the problem of bank slumps will continue for the next 20 years, the report said.
The Jiusan Society yesterday also proposed during the annual session of the Chongqing committee of the CPPCC to create a new mechanism that prevents and mitigates hazards.
"The incumbent mechanism lacks foresight and focus. It remedies rather than prevents," said Chen Hongkai, a member of the advising body who led the drafting of the proposal.At least another 300,000 people living near the Three Gorges Dam will have to be... more
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As the water level in the reservoir on the Yangtze River approaches its final height of 175 meters, criticism of China's Three Gorges Dam continues.
The completion of Three Gorges is being met with little fanfare, unlike the elaborate celebrations Beijing staged 12 years ago to mark the diversion of the Yangtze on the spot of the future massive dam, Inter Press Service reports.
In China, critics are saying filling of the dam is worsening the drought already affecting the Yangtze's delta. And Chinese diplomats are being met with skepticism in their efforts to promote hydropower across Asia and Africa.
To construct Three Gorges -- the world's largest and most expensive dam -- 1,350 villages were submerged and 1.3 million displaced from their homes. The dam has a capacity of 18,000 megawatts of electricity.
The dam's original cost, when approved in 1992, was estimated at $8.3 billion. That figure has now risen to $27 billion by Beijing's estimate, while other predictions slate the final cost at $88 billion.
"The Three Gorges dam is a model of the past," said Peter Bosshard, the policy director of California-based International Rivers, an organization whose mission is "to protect rivers and the communities that depend on them," Inter Press reports.
"There are smarter ways of generating energy and managing floods than by building outdated mega-projects," said Bosshard.
By blocking the flow of the Yangtze, its ecosystem has been altered to the extent that rare river species of dolphin and sturgeon are now facing extinction. Commercial fisheries along the Yangtze as well as off the river's mouth in the East China Sea have declined. And landslides, pollution of freshwater supplies and a greater risk of earthquakes are among the side effects of the dam.
In September 2007 government officials admitted, "If preventive measures are not taken, there could be an environmental collapse."
Pan Jiazheng, hydrologist with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, maintains that water is the only renewable energy source in China that can be developed on a large scale.
"Developing hydropower is the only viable way to make a dent in China's consumption of coal," Pan told Inter Press. "Those who argue that hydropower is not a clean energy have to ask themselves whether there is any other task more urgent for China's clean development than burning less coal."
Despite domestic and foreign criticism of Three Gorges, China is actively seeking to build hydropower projects in countries ranging from Cambodia to Pakistan to Nigeria.
"It is quasi-science to believe that hydropower equals green energy," said Zheng Yisheng, who researches environment and development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "You can't see rivers just as a source of energy and choose to ignore their ecological function as ecosystems. People need energy but they need a place to live, too."As the water level in the reservoir on the Yangtze River approaches its final height... more
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Sixty-four people missing after a massive pressure surge flooded part of a Russian dam are most likely dead, its owner said on Tuesday, indicating a likely death toll far higher than the 12 confirmed so far. "Finding anyone alive in the flood zone is unlikely, but the search continues," Vasily Zubakin, the chairman of state-controlled hydro-power company RusHydro, said through a spokesman.
A senior official at a local hospital near the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant said the death tally had officially risen to 12 from the 10 given on Monday night.
But 64 people were unaccounted for after a turbine room flooded early on Monday at the power station, Russia's largest. Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu confirmed this figure on Tuesday when he arrived on the scene.
Russia has been plagued for years by mine collapses, gas explosions and other catastrophes linked to creaking Soviet-era infrastructure.
After the global economic downturn gripped Russia last year, ambitious plans to revamp roads, ports and power stations were either scaled back or scrapped.
Shoigu said that a sudden surge in water pressure had burst through one of the turbines and caused the flood. "The main reason for the accident was a hydraulic pressure surge, but the cause of that surge still needs to be investigated," he said.
TURBINE PASSED ITS PRIME
Producing three times as much power as the Hoover Dam on the U.S. Colorado river, the Sayano-Shushenskaya station was touted as a jewel of Soviet engineering when it was launched in 1978 on Siberia's Yenisei river.
The turbines, however, have not been overhauled since Soviet times, and the firm that built the destroyed turbine told Reuters on Tuesday that it was too old to work safely.
"The machine is 30 years old. All guarantees of its functioning had passed," said Maria Aliyeva, a spokeswoman for engineering firm Power Machines, adding that the theoretical maximum age of the turbine is 25-30 years.
The Vesti television news channel ran amateur footage showing a fiery explosion near the base of the dam amid a torrent of gushing water.Sixty-four people missing after a massive pressure surge flooded part of a Russian dam... more
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