http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-11/clinton-lands-in-laos-to-discuss-mekong-dam-war-legacy.html
Clinton Presses Laos for More Studies on Mekong Dam in Visit
By Daniel Ten Kate and Nicole Gaouette - Jul 11, 2012 2:30 AM PT
Hillary Clinton pushed Laos for more studies on a $3.6 billion
hydropower dam on the Mekong River opposed by neighboring countries in
the first visit by a U.S. Secretary of State in 57 years.
The trip is part of a broader sweep Clinton is making through Asia as
the U.S. increases its engagement with the world�s fastest growing
economies, in part to counter China�s growing clout. Laos, a
landlocked nation of 6 million people bordering China, plans to expand
its generating capacity and sell electricity to its neighbors.
Laotian Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong assured Clinton that the
Xayaburi power project wouldn�t proceed without approval from
neighboring countries, according to a State Department official who
wasn�t authorized to speak on the record. Laos plans to hold an
international conference about the project to ease concerns, the
official said.
The dam remains an area of contention as the U.S. seeks to broaden its
engagement with Laos, which is still struggling with unexploded
ordnance left over from the Vietnam War. Clinton discussed cooperation
on the deadly material as well as accounting for U.S. personnel who
remain missing, according to a joint statement. Laos is the smallest
economy among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Dam Studies
The Xayaburi dam�s approval may pave the way for seven others that
Laos plans to build on the Mekong. The government has aimed to
convince its neighbors by showing them studies it commissioned from
Compagnie Nationale du Rh�ne and Switzerland- based Poyry Energy AG.
�Both the reports of Poyry and CNR indicated that the project has
created a negligible impact in respect of environmental and social
considerations,� Xaypaseuth Phomsoupha, director-general of Laos�s
Ministry of Energy and Mines, told reporters in Bangkok on June 20.
While Laos is building access roads and other infrastructure around
the dam site, construction on the river itself won�t start �in the
absence of the sign-off from our neighbors,� he said.
Vietnam has recommended a 10-year delay for all hydropower projects
over environmental concerns on the river, which winds through Myanmar,
Thailand and Cambodia from its source in China�s Tibetan plateau.
About 60 million people along the Mekong depend on the river and its
tributaries for food, water and transportation.
Thai Financiers
In 2010, Thailand made an initial agreement to buy 95 percent of the
electricity from the Xayaburi plant, which will have a capacity of
1,285 megawatts.
Ch. Karnchang Pcl (CK), Thailand�s third-biggest construction company
by market value, owns a 57.5 percent stake in the Xayaburi project.
PTT Pcl (PTT), Thailand�s biggest company, has a 25 percent stake and
Electricity Generating Pcl (EGCO) owns 12.5 percent.
In her meetings with Thongsing and Deputy Prime Minister Thongloun
Sisoulith, Clinton discussed environmental protection, Laos�s entry to
the World Trade Organization and the reintegration of ethnic minority
Hmong people who fled to Thailand in 2009, according to the statement.
The U.S. resettled 130,000 Hmong who fled to Thailand from 1975 to
1996, according to the State Department.
Unauthorized by Congress, U.S. planes dropped the equivalent of one
plane-load of bombs over Laos every eight minutes, 24 hours a day,
between 1964 and 1973, according to the non-profit Virginia-based
advocacy group, Legacies of War.
Unexploded Bombs
Intended to stop communist ground incursions and disrupt North
Vietnamese traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the bombings left Laos
the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. One ton of
bombs was dropped for every man, woman, and child in Laos at the time.
Today, an estimated one third of land remains unusable because of
unexploded ordnance, making it unavailable for food production or
development, according to Legacies of War. In the 40 years since the
war ended, 20,000 people have been killed or maimed by dormant
explosives hidden in the soil.
Clinton�s visit demonstrates that she �recognizes that bringing along
the less developed countries of the lower Mekong region is key for
stability and development in the region,� Brett Dakin, head of
Legacies of War�s board of directors, said in an e-mail. �However,� he
said, �Laos will not reach its full potential as long as much of its
land is still contaminated with unexploded bombs.�
To contact the reporters on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington
at ngaouette@bloomberg.net; Daniel Ten Kate in Phnom Penh at dtenkate@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Brinsley at jbrinsley@bloomberg.net
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Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Uganda: clear roadblocks in Karuma project
Clear roadblocks in Karuma project
Posted Tuesday, July 10 2012 at 01:00
Karuma Falls - Uganda
This newspaper yesterday reported that the construction of the much-awaited Karuma Hydro-power dam might once again be delayed because over 300 people residing near the project site have refused to vacate.
According to the locals, much as the Government Valuer assessed their land in September 2010, the energy ministry is only compensating them for their crops and not land. And because of this, most have refused to sign off their land, demanding full compensation. Of course if their claim is right by any measure then that will be a strange development because naturally compensation must take into account the full value of the land.
However, knowing how critical this project is to our country's development, it is important that those in charge clear such unnecessary hurdles in the way of the project. Compensation is one of the key factors in such large-scale projects that involve movement of people and it should therefore be handled both expeditiously and transparently.
And Karuma is not just any other project. We are talking 600MW of power here, over $1 billion at stake, thousands of possible jobs and a possible relief from load shedding. It is therefore important that the energy ministry does what it is expected to do in time.
Already, claims of some members of the contracts committee being compromised to determine the winner of this project has caused a setback—which prompted an audit—whose report although already submitted to the President—is yet to be made public.
We already have a history in this country seeing how the 250MW Bujagali energy project was first handled, going to a questionable contractor before it was salvaged by Bujagali Energy Limited—which has completed it albeit at a higher cost and many years after it was first conceived.
We cannot afford similar blunders this time round and those in charge must do due diligence but also deliver on what is expected of them. There is no way the dream of transforming Uganda into a middle-income country will be achieved if the energy sector is not treated with the utmost attention it deserves.
-- Betty Obbo Information & Publications +256 782 734849 / Skype:Bettynape bettyo@nape.or.ug / beatrice.obbo@gmail.com www.nape.or.ug
Thursday, July 5, 2012
China declares Three Gorges hydro project complete
China declares Three Gorges hydro project complete
July 4 2012
Reuters
By David Stanway; editing by Anthony Barker and Keiron Henderson
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/04/china-threegorges-idUSL3E8I42ZW20120704
Beijing - The final turbine of China's massive Three Gorges Dam was
connected to the grid on Wednesday, marking the completion of a
controversial hydropower project that cost the country more than $50
billion and displaced at least 1.3 million people.
The installation of the project's 32nd 700-megawatt unit brought total
capacity up to 22.5 gigawatts (GW), accounting for 11 percent of the
country's total hydroelectric capacity.
"The complete operation of all the generators makes the Three Gorges Dam
the world's largest hydropower project, and the largest base for clean
energy," China Radio International quoted Zhang Cheng, general manager
of the project's operator, China Yangtze Power Co. Ltd., as saying at a
ceremony.
The construction of the world's biggest hydropower plant began in 1994
and its first generating unit was connected to the grid in July 2003.
Official news agency Xinhua said it has already generated a total of
564.8 billion kilowatt-hours, saving nearly 200 million tonnes of coal a
year.
But the project, located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze river,
cost a total of 254 billion yuan ($39.99 billion), four times the
original estimate, and another 123.8 billion yuan has been spent on
"follow-up work".
The project's 185-metre dam and 600-km reservoir have forced the
relocation of at least 1.3 million residents, and the government has
acknowledged that earthquake and landslide risks have also increased in
the region.
Hydropower construction slowed after building work on the dam was
completed in 2006, with several large-scale projects vetoed because of
the soaring costs of handling displaced people and protecting the
environment.
But Beijing is now committed to bringing another 140 GW of hydropower
capacity on line between 2011 and 2015 to meet its renewable energy
targets.
($1 = 6.3523 yuan)
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July 4 2012
Reuters
By David Stanway; editing by Anthony Barker and Keiron Henderson
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/04/china-threegorges-idUSL3E8I42ZW20120704
Beijing - The final turbine of China's massive Three Gorges Dam was
connected to the grid on Wednesday, marking the completion of a
controversial hydropower project that cost the country more than $50
billion and displaced at least 1.3 million people.
The installation of the project's 32nd 700-megawatt unit brought total
capacity up to 22.5 gigawatts (GW), accounting for 11 percent of the
country's total hydroelectric capacity.
"The complete operation of all the generators makes the Three Gorges Dam
the world's largest hydropower project, and the largest base for clean
energy," China Radio International quoted Zhang Cheng, general manager
of the project's operator, China Yangtze Power Co. Ltd., as saying at a
ceremony.
The construction of the world's biggest hydropower plant began in 1994
and its first generating unit was connected to the grid in July 2003.
Official news agency Xinhua said it has already generated a total of
564.8 billion kilowatt-hours, saving nearly 200 million tonnes of coal a
year.
But the project, located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze river,
cost a total of 254 billion yuan ($39.99 billion), four times the
original estimate, and another 123.8 billion yuan has been spent on
"follow-up work".
The project's 185-metre dam and 600-km reservoir have forced the
relocation of at least 1.3 million residents, and the government has
acknowledged that earthquake and landslide risks have also increased in
the region.
Hydropower construction slowed after building work on the dam was
completed in 2006, with several large-scale projects vetoed because of
the soaring costs of handling displaced people and protecting the
environment.
But Beijing is now committed to bringing another 140 GW of hydropower
capacity on line between 2011 and 2015 to meet its renewable energy
targets.
($1 = 6.3523 yuan)
________________________________________________
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To be removed from the list, please visit:
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Salween River Dammed by Peace
Salween River Dammed by Peace
The Irrawaddy. 3 July 2012
By Charlie Campbell
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/8289
PA-AN, Karen State � Snaking through the verdant limestone landscape,
the Salween River finally reaches the Andaman Sea by Burma's former teak
port capital of Moulmein after running a course of 2,800 kilometers
during which it supports an estimated 10 million people.
But times are changing for what was once the longest free-flowing river
in Asia, as Chinese, Thai and Burmese-backed dam projects look set to
transform the dynamic of this vital waterway in the wake of Naypyidaw's
peace deals with ethnic armed groups.
Pianporn Deetes, of the International Rivers environmental NGO, told The
Irrawaddy that Karen State Chief Minister Zaw Min just confirmed to her
group that the southernmost Hatgyi Dam�one of seven on the cards on
Burma's stretch of the river�has finally been approved by the government.
"We were informed that EGAT [Electricity Generating Authority of
Thailand] and Sinohydro have tried to resume the construction
preparation of the Hatgyi Dam since mid-April, when the peace process
between the KNU [Karen National Union] and Burmese government was taking
place," she said.
"It is reported that equipment was brought to the dam site. More
recently, in early June EGAT and Sinohydro told groups in Pa-an that
they were about to resume the Hatgyi Dam."
Along with the seven major dams planned for the Burmese stretch of the
Salween, another 13 are either planned or under construction upstream in
China. If completed the Burmese projects are in line to produce over
17,000 MW of electricity, the vast majority of which is due to be sold
to Thailand and China despite dire domestic power shortages.
Yet the human impact is likely to be enormous, with almost 100,000
people displaced by the new dam basins in Burma.
"If the [Hatgyi] Dam is really successful, this place will be destroyed
and the livelihood [of villagers] in these villages will become
completely destroyed," a fisherman from B'Yah Kyauk village in Htee
Th'Daw Hta village tract, Bu Tho Township, Papun District, told the
Karen Human Rights Group in a report released last month.
Burma's Ministry of Electric Power signed a deal with the EGAT and
China's Sinohydro Corporation in 2006 to build Hatgyi but progress has
stalled due to the ongoing ethnic conflict. Sinohydro is also the
company due to build the Tasang Dam, in Shan State, as well as the
currently suspended Myitsone hydropower project on the Irrawaddy River
in Kachin State.
And it appears work on the upstream Tasang Dam is also intensifying in
the wake of a peace deal signed between the rebel Shan State Army-South
and Burmese government in late May, with Chinese workers seen surveying
nearby land soon after the agreement, according to rebel sources.
Tasang�purported to become the largest dam in Southeast Asia and the
single largest investment project in Burma�is expected to displace at
least 60,000 people, with Thailand expected to purchase at least 85
percent of the power produced.
Local people complain of a lack of consultation and inadequate
environmental impact assessments compared with the scale of the projects
being undertaken. "If they dam the river then we do not know what will
happen to our lives here," a fishmonger in Pa-an's central market told
The Irrawaddy on Saturday. "No one has told us anything about this."
The Salween River begins its journey high in the Himalayas at 4,000
meters above sea level on the Tibetan Plateau and remains an integral
part of the livelihoods and cultures of many groups including the Shan,
Wa, Karenni, Pa-O, Palaung, Mon, Lahu, Padaung, Akha and Lisu.
Fishing is a major source of food for Burma's Shan and Karen communities
while the Salween's nutrient-rich waters also replenish vegetable
gardens and farmlands. Yet the natural ebb and flow of the tides and
seasonal flooding would be a thing of the past should the planned
cascade of dams come to fruition.
And it is not just the Burmese that are concerned with the lack of
consultation as Thailand, despite being a major backer of several
projects, is also becoming increasingly worried.
"Interestingly, in 2010 the Thai Prime Minister's Office issued a
recommendation regarding the Hatgyi Dam," explained Pianporn. "In the
recommendation it said there should be a new transboundary impacts
assessment covering Thai soil�the existing [Environmental Impact
Assessment] by Chulalongkorn University didn't cover impacts on Thailand."
"There were public hearings in local areas by the Prime Minister's
Office. But since then there has not been any study undertaken. Affected
communities in Thailand are preparing to submit a letter to the Thai PM
asking about this."
Protests against construction of the dams have been isolated yet
fierce�hundreds of Internally Displaced Persons at Ho Kay, Por Ka Der
and E-tu Hta temporary camps on the banks of the Salween have been
campaigning against the Hatgyi since 2004, the latest mass demonstration
being this past March.
"If the dams are built, the downstream effects stand to alter the lives
of over half a million people," says a report by International Rivers
released last month. "These effects could include altering river flows,
increasing erosion, destroying islands, damaging downstream agriculture,
reducing fish catches and potentially triggering disastrous earthquakes
and dam breaks in this seismically active region."
Protesters also worry that these dams will repeat the problems of
previous mega construction projects�civilians being forcibly removed
from their homes, losing their livelihoods, being the target of vicious
assaults and random executions as well as destroying the fragile
ecosystems of the area.
Despite the ongoing campaigns, however, many local people remain unaware
of the danger the dams present. "Normal people around here don't really
know much about these dams," confessed a social worker based in
Moulmein. "They are too busy just trying to get on with their daily
lives and making a little money."
________________________________________________
This is International Rivers' mailing list on China's global footprint, and particularly Chinese investment in
international dam projects.
You received this message as a subscriber on the list: chinaglobal@list.internationalrivers.org
To be removed from the list, please visit:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2486/unsubscribe.jsp
The Irrawaddy. 3 July 2012
By Charlie Campbell
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/8289
PA-AN, Karen State � Snaking through the verdant limestone landscape,
the Salween River finally reaches the Andaman Sea by Burma's former teak
port capital of Moulmein after running a course of 2,800 kilometers
during which it supports an estimated 10 million people.
But times are changing for what was once the longest free-flowing river
in Asia, as Chinese, Thai and Burmese-backed dam projects look set to
transform the dynamic of this vital waterway in the wake of Naypyidaw's
peace deals with ethnic armed groups.
Pianporn Deetes, of the International Rivers environmental NGO, told The
Irrawaddy that Karen State Chief Minister Zaw Min just confirmed to her
group that the southernmost Hatgyi Dam�one of seven on the cards on
Burma's stretch of the river�has finally been approved by the government.
"We were informed that EGAT [Electricity Generating Authority of
Thailand] and Sinohydro have tried to resume the construction
preparation of the Hatgyi Dam since mid-April, when the peace process
between the KNU [Karen National Union] and Burmese government was taking
place," she said.
"It is reported that equipment was brought to the dam site. More
recently, in early June EGAT and Sinohydro told groups in Pa-an that
they were about to resume the Hatgyi Dam."
Along with the seven major dams planned for the Burmese stretch of the
Salween, another 13 are either planned or under construction upstream in
China. If completed the Burmese projects are in line to produce over
17,000 MW of electricity, the vast majority of which is due to be sold
to Thailand and China despite dire domestic power shortages.
Yet the human impact is likely to be enormous, with almost 100,000
people displaced by the new dam basins in Burma.
"If the [Hatgyi] Dam is really successful, this place will be destroyed
and the livelihood [of villagers] in these villages will become
completely destroyed," a fisherman from B'Yah Kyauk village in Htee
Th'Daw Hta village tract, Bu Tho Township, Papun District, told the
Karen Human Rights Group in a report released last month.
Burma's Ministry of Electric Power signed a deal with the EGAT and
China's Sinohydro Corporation in 2006 to build Hatgyi but progress has
stalled due to the ongoing ethnic conflict. Sinohydro is also the
company due to build the Tasang Dam, in Shan State, as well as the
currently suspended Myitsone hydropower project on the Irrawaddy River
in Kachin State.
And it appears work on the upstream Tasang Dam is also intensifying in
the wake of a peace deal signed between the rebel Shan State Army-South
and Burmese government in late May, with Chinese workers seen surveying
nearby land soon after the agreement, according to rebel sources.
Tasang�purported to become the largest dam in Southeast Asia and the
single largest investment project in Burma�is expected to displace at
least 60,000 people, with Thailand expected to purchase at least 85
percent of the power produced.
Local people complain of a lack of consultation and inadequate
environmental impact assessments compared with the scale of the projects
being undertaken. "If they dam the river then we do not know what will
happen to our lives here," a fishmonger in Pa-an's central market told
The Irrawaddy on Saturday. "No one has told us anything about this."
The Salween River begins its journey high in the Himalayas at 4,000
meters above sea level on the Tibetan Plateau and remains an integral
part of the livelihoods and cultures of many groups including the Shan,
Wa, Karenni, Pa-O, Palaung, Mon, Lahu, Padaung, Akha and Lisu.
Fishing is a major source of food for Burma's Shan and Karen communities
while the Salween's nutrient-rich waters also replenish vegetable
gardens and farmlands. Yet the natural ebb and flow of the tides and
seasonal flooding would be a thing of the past should the planned
cascade of dams come to fruition.
And it is not just the Burmese that are concerned with the lack of
consultation as Thailand, despite being a major backer of several
projects, is also becoming increasingly worried.
"Interestingly, in 2010 the Thai Prime Minister's Office issued a
recommendation regarding the Hatgyi Dam," explained Pianporn. "In the
recommendation it said there should be a new transboundary impacts
assessment covering Thai soil�the existing [Environmental Impact
Assessment] by Chulalongkorn University didn't cover impacts on Thailand."
"There were public hearings in local areas by the Prime Minister's
Office. But since then there has not been any study undertaken. Affected
communities in Thailand are preparing to submit a letter to the Thai PM
asking about this."
Protests against construction of the dams have been isolated yet
fierce�hundreds of Internally Displaced Persons at Ho Kay, Por Ka Der
and E-tu Hta temporary camps on the banks of the Salween have been
campaigning against the Hatgyi since 2004, the latest mass demonstration
being this past March.
"If the dams are built, the downstream effects stand to alter the lives
of over half a million people," says a report by International Rivers
released last month. "These effects could include altering river flows,
increasing erosion, destroying islands, damaging downstream agriculture,
reducing fish catches and potentially triggering disastrous earthquakes
and dam breaks in this seismically active region."
Protesters also worry that these dams will repeat the problems of
previous mega construction projects�civilians being forcibly removed
from their homes, losing their livelihoods, being the target of vicious
assaults and random executions as well as destroying the fragile
ecosystems of the area.
Despite the ongoing campaigns, however, many local people remain unaware
of the danger the dams present. "Normal people around here don't really
know much about these dams," confessed a social worker based in
Moulmein. "They are too busy just trying to get on with their daily
lives and making a little money."
________________________________________________
This is International Rivers' mailing list on China's global footprint, and particularly Chinese investment in
international dam projects.
You received this message as a subscriber on the list: chinaglobal@list.internationalrivers.org
To be removed from the list, please visit:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2486/unsubscribe.jsp
Access for the poor? World Bank's infrastructure approach under increased scrutiny
Access for the poor? World Bank's infrastructure approach under
increased scrutiny
Bretton Woods Project
(also many good links on the page: http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-570795)
3 July 2012
As the G20 and the World Bank continue their push for increased
investment in large-scale public-private led infrastructure projects,
further scrutiny of the Bank�s track record puts its strategy in
question.
The declaration from the G20 summit in Mexico in late June reconfirmed
the group�s support for investment in infrastructure as "critical for
sustained economic growth, poverty reduction, and job creation", and
welcomed the "strong progress" on the implementation of the
recommendations of the report of the G20-commissioned High Level Panel
on Infrastructure (HLP) and the multilateral development banks� (MDBs)
Infrastructure action plan (see Update 79, 77). Furthermore, the G20
stressed that, while public financing of infrastructure projects
"remains essential", it "should be complemented by private sector
investment".
The G20 "welcome" the Business 20's (a G20 related event aimed at
providing recommendations from the private sector) Green Growth Action
Alliance, a new public-private partnership (PPP) initiative launched
in June to address the "shortfall in green infrastructure investment".
According to Nancy Alexander of the German political foundation
Heinrich Boell this "would dramatically scale up the use of public
money to offset the risks of private investment". A June report by
Boell and NGO WWF, focusing on energy infrastructure in Africa, states
that "often, PPPs leave the issue of universal access to poorly funded
governments and under-financed utilities to solve."
NGO International Rivers questioned the approach of the G20 and the
Bank in its May report Infrastructure for whom? While the report
acknowledged the importance of infrastructure for prosperity, it noted
that large, centralised infrastructure, especially large hydropower
dams, more often benefit energy-intensive industries than the poor.
Furthermore, the report said that the focus on "increased public
support for private infrastructure projects" is contrary to the Bank�s
own findings. A 2003 Bank assessment found that "the poor are often
the last to benefit from increased access" and "tend to be overlooked"
by private operators (see Update 36). Furthermore, the Bank�s updated
infrastructure strategy (see Update 79) concluded that the results of
"expected �trickle-down effects� ... have been slow."
The International Rivers report calls for infrastructure projects that
are decentralised, participatory, transparent, accountable, carried
out under "the strictest social and environmental safeguards" and
addressing the basics needs of the poor directly, rather than relying
on a trickle-down approach. They should also be devised "to strengthen
climate resilience rather than increasing climate vulnerability."
While the report agrees that private enterprises "have a big potential
to supply equipment" that address the needs of the poor, as investors
they "play a minor role in developing infrastructure projects for poor
consumers". Instead, the report suggests that new funding mechanisms
for innovative, small projects should be considered.
"Exemplary" projects questioned
The G20 strategy is further criticised in a second June report by
Boell and the US-based Ford Foundation, including criticism of the
"exemplary projects", as defined by the HLP and the MDBs. This
identification is based on six criteria, including "regional
integration" and "private sector potential", but none that explicitly
refers to issues around poverty alleviation or environmental
sustainability. The report finds that centralised solutions are
overemphasised, noting that "a 'bigger is better' approach does not
imply sustainability". It also argues that some of the "exemplary"
projects "have enormous carbon footprints". This runs counter to the
Bank's new focus on 'green growth' (see Update 81), where it argues
that "getting infrastructure 'right' is at the heart of green growth
[and] is critical because infrastructure choices have long-lived and
difficult-to-reverse impacts on the carbon, land, and water intensity
of future patterns of development." Furthermore, the report argues
that the projects have an "over-emphasis on PPPs".
One of the 11 "exemplary projects" identified by the HLP is the
"Ethiopia-Kenya interconnector", a power transmission system devised
to transfer hydropower electricity from Ethiopia to Kenya and link to
the broader East African region. The Bank support for this project has
led NGOs to assert that it is effectively funding the highly
criticised Ethiopian Gibe III Dam, a project the Bank has declined to
fund directly due to its violation of Bank policy (see Update 71).
In May, a letter to then Bank president Robert Zoellick from nine
NGOs, including Friends of Lake Turkana in Kenya and the US-based
Oakland Institute, called for the Bank to "not fund a transmission
line that would source its power from the Gibe III Dam or from any
other project that massively violates its safeguard policies." The
letter also notes that East Africa is already "over-dependent on
hydropower generation", leading to increased risk under climate change
and that "the project's impacts on the region's climate resilience
need to be assessed". In a June reply to the letter, the Bank�s
director of sustainable development for Africa, Jamal Saghir,
confirmed that the project "will draw power from Ethiopia�s national
grid, to which ... Gibe III could initially contribute up to 20 per
cent". Ikal Angelei of Friends of Lake Turkana urged the Bank to
consider projects that would help people in the region, rather than
enable a dam that could destroy Lake Turkana: "People depend on the
lake. We need development projects that will benefit us, not kill us."
Another "exemplary" project is the highly controversial Grand Inga Dam
in the Democratic Republic of Congo (see Update 70, 67, 56), "with the
objective of gradually developing its potential, and providing the
necessary transmission links to ensure that the power produced can
benefit both DRC and the surrounding region through power export." The
dam is estimated to have a generation potential of "almost double that
of the world's largest hydro-project", leading the HLP to draw the
conclusion that it "offers the most cost-effective source of power
currently available to Sub-Saharan Africa". However, according to
Interntational Rivers billions of dollars of aid money have already
been spent on dams and transmission projects on the Congo River, yet
94 per cent of the population still has no access to electricity.
Zachary Hurwitz of the NGO said: "The G20 leaders should prioritise
investments that directly address poor peoples' needs rather than
using taxpayer money to pay for huge, high-risk projects whose private
sector returns rarely trickle down."
The impacts of the Bank's role in hydro projects have long been
criticised, with some cases yet to be rectified, such as its
involvement in the Chixoy hydroelectric dam in Guatemala (see Update
54, 47, 43). In December 2011 three organisations, including Rights
Action and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights in a renewed attempt to hold the Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank accountable for human rights violations that occurred
during the construction of the dam in the 1980s, claiming that no
reparations or compensation have been provided. The Inter-American
Court of Human Rights held a hearing in late June to further assess
the case.
In March, the Bank approved a $132 million loan for yet another
controversial hydro project, Cameroon's Lom Pangar Dam. NGOs, such as
the US-based Bank Information Centre (BIC) and International Rivers,
argue that the dam will have significant environmental and social
impacts and make the country even more vulnerable to drought and
climate change, due to its already high dependency on hydro power.
According to BIC, the dam "appears to respond to the energy demands of
the expanding aluminium sector rather than the energy needs of the
majority of the country's population lacking access to electricity."
Furthermore, the benefits of Laos' largest hydroelectric dam, the Bank
and Asian Development Bank funded Nam Theun 2 (see Update 63, 59, 56,
45), have been questioned, with a relocated villager claiming that
they "are now living near the dam but ... have no electricity, no
clean water". However, the Bank has refuted this claim, arguing that
"every household in those [resettlement] villages has an electricity
connection and improved water supply."
________________________________________________
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increased scrutiny
Bretton Woods Project
(also many good links on the page: http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art-570795)
3 July 2012
As the G20 and the World Bank continue their push for increased
investment in large-scale public-private led infrastructure projects,
further scrutiny of the Bank�s track record puts its strategy in
question.
The declaration from the G20 summit in Mexico in late June reconfirmed
the group�s support for investment in infrastructure as "critical for
sustained economic growth, poverty reduction, and job creation", and
welcomed the "strong progress" on the implementation of the
recommendations of the report of the G20-commissioned High Level Panel
on Infrastructure (HLP) and the multilateral development banks� (MDBs)
Infrastructure action plan (see Update 79, 77). Furthermore, the G20
stressed that, while public financing of infrastructure projects
"remains essential", it "should be complemented by private sector
investment".
The G20 "welcome" the Business 20's (a G20 related event aimed at
providing recommendations from the private sector) Green Growth Action
Alliance, a new public-private partnership (PPP) initiative launched
in June to address the "shortfall in green infrastructure investment".
According to Nancy Alexander of the German political foundation
Heinrich Boell this "would dramatically scale up the use of public
money to offset the risks of private investment". A June report by
Boell and NGO WWF, focusing on energy infrastructure in Africa, states
that "often, PPPs leave the issue of universal access to poorly funded
governments and under-financed utilities to solve."
NGO International Rivers questioned the approach of the G20 and the
Bank in its May report Infrastructure for whom? While the report
acknowledged the importance of infrastructure for prosperity, it noted
that large, centralised infrastructure, especially large hydropower
dams, more often benefit energy-intensive industries than the poor.
Furthermore, the report said that the focus on "increased public
support for private infrastructure projects" is contrary to the Bank�s
own findings. A 2003 Bank assessment found that "the poor are often
the last to benefit from increased access" and "tend to be overlooked"
by private operators (see Update 36). Furthermore, the Bank�s updated
infrastructure strategy (see Update 79) concluded that the results of
"expected �trickle-down effects� ... have been slow."
The International Rivers report calls for infrastructure projects that
are decentralised, participatory, transparent, accountable, carried
out under "the strictest social and environmental safeguards" and
addressing the basics needs of the poor directly, rather than relying
on a trickle-down approach. They should also be devised "to strengthen
climate resilience rather than increasing climate vulnerability."
While the report agrees that private enterprises "have a big potential
to supply equipment" that address the needs of the poor, as investors
they "play a minor role in developing infrastructure projects for poor
consumers". Instead, the report suggests that new funding mechanisms
for innovative, small projects should be considered.
"Exemplary" projects questioned
The G20 strategy is further criticised in a second June report by
Boell and the US-based Ford Foundation, including criticism of the
"exemplary projects", as defined by the HLP and the MDBs. This
identification is based on six criteria, including "regional
integration" and "private sector potential", but none that explicitly
refers to issues around poverty alleviation or environmental
sustainability. The report finds that centralised solutions are
overemphasised, noting that "a 'bigger is better' approach does not
imply sustainability". It also argues that some of the "exemplary"
projects "have enormous carbon footprints". This runs counter to the
Bank's new focus on 'green growth' (see Update 81), where it argues
that "getting infrastructure 'right' is at the heart of green growth
[and] is critical because infrastructure choices have long-lived and
difficult-to-reverse impacts on the carbon, land, and water intensity
of future patterns of development." Furthermore, the report argues
that the projects have an "over-emphasis on PPPs".
One of the 11 "exemplary projects" identified by the HLP is the
"Ethiopia-Kenya interconnector", a power transmission system devised
to transfer hydropower electricity from Ethiopia to Kenya and link to
the broader East African region. The Bank support for this project has
led NGOs to assert that it is effectively funding the highly
criticised Ethiopian Gibe III Dam, a project the Bank has declined to
fund directly due to its violation of Bank policy (see Update 71).
In May, a letter to then Bank president Robert Zoellick from nine
NGOs, including Friends of Lake Turkana in Kenya and the US-based
Oakland Institute, called for the Bank to "not fund a transmission
line that would source its power from the Gibe III Dam or from any
other project that massively violates its safeguard policies." The
letter also notes that East Africa is already "over-dependent on
hydropower generation", leading to increased risk under climate change
and that "the project's impacts on the region's climate resilience
need to be assessed". In a June reply to the letter, the Bank�s
director of sustainable development for Africa, Jamal Saghir,
confirmed that the project "will draw power from Ethiopia�s national
grid, to which ... Gibe III could initially contribute up to 20 per
cent". Ikal Angelei of Friends of Lake Turkana urged the Bank to
consider projects that would help people in the region, rather than
enable a dam that could destroy Lake Turkana: "People depend on the
lake. We need development projects that will benefit us, not kill us."
Another "exemplary" project is the highly controversial Grand Inga Dam
in the Democratic Republic of Congo (see Update 70, 67, 56), "with the
objective of gradually developing its potential, and providing the
necessary transmission links to ensure that the power produced can
benefit both DRC and the surrounding region through power export." The
dam is estimated to have a generation potential of "almost double that
of the world's largest hydro-project", leading the HLP to draw the
conclusion that it "offers the most cost-effective source of power
currently available to Sub-Saharan Africa". However, according to
Interntational Rivers billions of dollars of aid money have already
been spent on dams and transmission projects on the Congo River, yet
94 per cent of the population still has no access to electricity.
Zachary Hurwitz of the NGO said: "The G20 leaders should prioritise
investments that directly address poor peoples' needs rather than
using taxpayer money to pay for huge, high-risk projects whose private
sector returns rarely trickle down."
The impacts of the Bank's role in hydro projects have long been
criticised, with some cases yet to be rectified, such as its
involvement in the Chixoy hydroelectric dam in Guatemala (see Update
54, 47, 43). In December 2011 three organisations, including Rights
Action and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights in a renewed attempt to hold the Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank accountable for human rights violations that occurred
during the construction of the dam in the 1980s, claiming that no
reparations or compensation have been provided. The Inter-American
Court of Human Rights held a hearing in late June to further assess
the case.
In March, the Bank approved a $132 million loan for yet another
controversial hydro project, Cameroon's Lom Pangar Dam. NGOs, such as
the US-based Bank Information Centre (BIC) and International Rivers,
argue that the dam will have significant environmental and social
impacts and make the country even more vulnerable to drought and
climate change, due to its already high dependency on hydro power.
According to BIC, the dam "appears to respond to the energy demands of
the expanding aluminium sector rather than the energy needs of the
majority of the country's population lacking access to electricity."
Furthermore, the benefits of Laos' largest hydroelectric dam, the Bank
and Asian Development Bank funded Nam Theun 2 (see Update 63, 59, 56,
45), have been questioned, with a relocated villager claiming that
they "are now living near the dam but ... have no electricity, no
clean water". However, the Bank has refuted this claim, arguing that
"every household in those [resettlement] villages has an electricity
connection and improved water supply."
________________________________________________
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Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Jinsha dam plans stoke old rows
Jinsha dam plans stoke old rows
By Deng Quanlun and Hu Feifei
Time Weekly
July 02, 2012
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/5021
chinadialogue note: once again, experts, NGOs and officials are getting
stuck into China's hydropower debate, much of it played out in the
country's media. Here's a translated article from Guangzhou-based
newspaper Time Weekly about the ongoing struggle between dam-building
and environmental protection in south-west China.
Another bout of fighting has broken out over hydropower development on
China's Jinsha River, the westernmost tributary to the Yangtze.
At the launch of a new survey on dam-building in late May, Zhang Boting,
deputy secretary general of the China Society for Hydropower
Engineering, denounced the "fake experts" he said were misleading
journalists and the public, and rejected reports of an untrammelled dam
frenzy in south-west China.
Specifically, he levelled the "fake expert" insult at Yang Yong, chief
scientist at the Hengduan Mountains Research Institute and a member of
the expert committee at the China Foundation for Desertification Control.
Yang has been waging a battle to protect the Jinsha River from
exploitation since 2004. He argues that plans for intensive development,
involving 25 dams, will break the river up into sections of still water.
This is not a good use of the Yangtze's resources, he says, and will
affect fish migration.
Plans in the public domain include a cascade of 25 dams on the Jinsha
River, which would generate as much electricity as four Three Gorges
Dams put together. This would create a huge cluster of reservoirs - on
average, one every 100 kilometres.
For two weeks in April and May, the magazine of the China Society for
Hydropower Engineering, Energy, invited a group of hydrologists to
survey dam-building activities in south-west China. Zhang Boting joined
the expert group. Coincidentally, while they were carrying out their
investigation, a flurry of media reports came out raising doubts about
the wisdom of the development plans.
On May 16, a meeting was held to present a summary of the survey's
findings. It was also an opportunity for the industry to respond to
public concerns about excessive development. Zhang made a keynote speech
at the meeting, in which he started by refuting claims that hydropower
construction had got out of control.
Are plans to have "hydroelectric dams less than 100 kilometres apart"
excessive? No, Zhang said: this is normal. Cascades are standard both in
China and abroad. There are 70 hydroelectric dams on the 1,000-kilometre
Tennessee River, he said, and in Europe similarly dense clusters of dams
are found on rivers including the Rhine and the Danube. [Editor's note:
According to the Tennessee Valley Authority, only 41 dams in fact
contribute to the Tennessee Valley power system].
Zhang had more to say. He followed up his speech with 11 articles,
published on the society's website, systematically rebutting criticisms
of the Jinsha development plans.
And his efforts triggered a counter-attack. Yang Yong accused Zhang of
forgetting China's circumstances, of blindly applying foreign
experiences to development of the Jinsha, and deliberately ignoring the
fragility of ecosystems on the upper reaches of the river. He said the
ecologies of the Jinsha and other rivers in south-west China are
extremely sensitive, and cannot be directly compared with rivers overseas.
There are, however, lessons to be drawn from abroad, Yang said: US and
European dam-building is carried out as part of wider river management
approach that is sensitive to the overall functions of the river
ecosystem, he argued. In contrast, development of the Jinsha is more
single-mindedly focused on hydropower, and could damage the river as a
whole.
With 25 dams, the rapidly-flowing Jinsha River will be sliced into
sections of passive water, changing the hydrology of the entire basin,
he said. The environment, habitat and lifecycles of state-protected fish
like the Chinese paddlefish and the Dabry's Sturgeon will be impacted.
Yang accused Zhang of being a spokesperson for industry interests. He
said he was a "person of confused logic" with a coarse attitude, who
attacked and insulted those who held different views.
Both men have impressive backgrounds. Zhang, 58, was sent to work in the
north-east of China during the Cultural Revolution. On returning to
Beijing in 1977, he attended Peking University and later joined the
China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, where he was
involved in dam design, stress analysis and structural analysis. In
1990, he joined the China Hydropower Engineering Society.
Yang, 53, has been described in the media as the most "enlightened" of
civil society's environmental experts, thanks to his extensive
on-the-ground research. Over the last 20 years, he has visited almost
all of China's rivers, on foot, by raft or by car. He has followed the
environmental story of the Jinsha since the 1980s. On May 23, he was
awarded the Nikkei Asia Prize - which "recognises the achievements of
people and organisations that have improved the lives of people in Asia"
for his independent and sustained investigations into dams and the
environment.
The two men have never met, but they are by no means strangers. Zhang is
a staunch supporter of dams, while Yang is a representative of the
opposition. And their ongoing war of words shows the struggle between
hydropower and environmental protection in microcosm.
Controversy has dogged the Jinsha since 2004. The previous year, the
State Development Planning Commission (predecessor of the National
Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning
body) approved plans for a cascade of eight dams on the middle reaches
of the river. When the news broke, an opposition lobby of green NGOs,
experts and environmental protection officials quickly got organised.
In 2009, a crackdown on dubious environmental approvals for large
projects by the Ministry of Environmental Protection brought the
programme to a halt. Then in July 2010, the government ended a
moratorium on approvals for new dams, prompted by an urgent need to cut
carbon emissions. Zhang Guobao, at the time head of the National Energy
Administration, said that if energy-saving and emissions-reduction
targets for 2020 were to be met, China would need 380 million kilowatts
of hydropower capacity. That meant both approvals and construction
needed to speed up.
But even as China's hydropower sector geared up again, the row over
environmental protection versus development was raging on. Now into
2012, it appears as fierce as ever.
Lu Youmei, a hydrology and hydropower engineer and member of the Chinese
Academy of Engineering is broadly supportive of dam-building. Lu
admitted that there are problems to be addressed in the Chinese
hydropower sector, but said this is no reason to give up: "The key is to
look at the problems realistically, scientifically and rationally."
Lu said that, far from it being a case of development going too far in
China, river exploitation is actually lagging behind other countries.
National Energy Administration figures indicate China has the potential
to generate 542 million kilowatts of energy from hydropower, but is only
actually generating around 34% of that, 185 million kilowatts. This is
much lower than utilisation rates in developed nations of around 60% to 70%.
But Weng Lida, once head of the environmental protection department at
the Yangtze River Commission, insisted that hydropower development has
got out of control. "There are too many dams on the rivers in the
south-west, the rivers can hardly breathe," he said
And, early last month, the Ministry of Water Resources' Changjiang River
Scientific Research Institute, China Three Gorges Project Corporation
(CTGPC) and WWF published a report called "China's Environmental Flows
Research and Practice". The report concluded that there were already too
many hydropower plants on some parts of the upper Yangtze and that
untrammelled development was affecting the basin's ecological balance.
Chen Guojie, a researcher at the Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards
and Environment, is worried: if plans for the upper reaches of the
Yangtze go ahead as planned, 100 species of fish will die out, he warned.
Even Cao Guangjing, chairman of China Three Gorges Project Corporation -
the state-owned company behind the world's largest hydroelectric dam to
date - is cautious. With more dams, the coordination of water storage
and drainage will be problematic, he said; dealing with this challenge
is a work in progress, and hydropower development needs to take account
of this.
You can't squeeze all the value out of every drop of water, you need to
consider the environment's needs, he said. "Protect as you develop,
develop as you protect. That's the principle."
Deng Quanlun and Hu Feifei are reporters at Time Weekly, where this
article was first published.
________________________________________________
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By Deng Quanlun and Hu Feifei
Time Weekly
July 02, 2012
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/5021
chinadialogue note: once again, experts, NGOs and officials are getting
stuck into China's hydropower debate, much of it played out in the
country's media. Here's a translated article from Guangzhou-based
newspaper Time Weekly about the ongoing struggle between dam-building
and environmental protection in south-west China.
Another bout of fighting has broken out over hydropower development on
China's Jinsha River, the westernmost tributary to the Yangtze.
At the launch of a new survey on dam-building in late May, Zhang Boting,
deputy secretary general of the China Society for Hydropower
Engineering, denounced the "fake experts" he said were misleading
journalists and the public, and rejected reports of an untrammelled dam
frenzy in south-west China.
Specifically, he levelled the "fake expert" insult at Yang Yong, chief
scientist at the Hengduan Mountains Research Institute and a member of
the expert committee at the China Foundation for Desertification Control.
Yang has been waging a battle to protect the Jinsha River from
exploitation since 2004. He argues that plans for intensive development,
involving 25 dams, will break the river up into sections of still water.
This is not a good use of the Yangtze's resources, he says, and will
affect fish migration.
Plans in the public domain include a cascade of 25 dams on the Jinsha
River, which would generate as much electricity as four Three Gorges
Dams put together. This would create a huge cluster of reservoirs - on
average, one every 100 kilometres.
For two weeks in April and May, the magazine of the China Society for
Hydropower Engineering, Energy, invited a group of hydrologists to
survey dam-building activities in south-west China. Zhang Boting joined
the expert group. Coincidentally, while they were carrying out their
investigation, a flurry of media reports came out raising doubts about
the wisdom of the development plans.
On May 16, a meeting was held to present a summary of the survey's
findings. It was also an opportunity for the industry to respond to
public concerns about excessive development. Zhang made a keynote speech
at the meeting, in which he started by refuting claims that hydropower
construction had got out of control.
Are plans to have "hydroelectric dams less than 100 kilometres apart"
excessive? No, Zhang said: this is normal. Cascades are standard both in
China and abroad. There are 70 hydroelectric dams on the 1,000-kilometre
Tennessee River, he said, and in Europe similarly dense clusters of dams
are found on rivers including the Rhine and the Danube. [Editor's note:
According to the Tennessee Valley Authority, only 41 dams in fact
contribute to the Tennessee Valley power system].
Zhang had more to say. He followed up his speech with 11 articles,
published on the society's website, systematically rebutting criticisms
of the Jinsha development plans.
And his efforts triggered a counter-attack. Yang Yong accused Zhang of
forgetting China's circumstances, of blindly applying foreign
experiences to development of the Jinsha, and deliberately ignoring the
fragility of ecosystems on the upper reaches of the river. He said the
ecologies of the Jinsha and other rivers in south-west China are
extremely sensitive, and cannot be directly compared with rivers overseas.
There are, however, lessons to be drawn from abroad, Yang said: US and
European dam-building is carried out as part of wider river management
approach that is sensitive to the overall functions of the river
ecosystem, he argued. In contrast, development of the Jinsha is more
single-mindedly focused on hydropower, and could damage the river as a
whole.
With 25 dams, the rapidly-flowing Jinsha River will be sliced into
sections of passive water, changing the hydrology of the entire basin,
he said. The environment, habitat and lifecycles of state-protected fish
like the Chinese paddlefish and the Dabry's Sturgeon will be impacted.
Yang accused Zhang of being a spokesperson for industry interests. He
said he was a "person of confused logic" with a coarse attitude, who
attacked and insulted those who held different views.
Both men have impressive backgrounds. Zhang, 58, was sent to work in the
north-east of China during the Cultural Revolution. On returning to
Beijing in 1977, he attended Peking University and later joined the
China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, where he was
involved in dam design, stress analysis and structural analysis. In
1990, he joined the China Hydropower Engineering Society.
Yang, 53, has been described in the media as the most "enlightened" of
civil society's environmental experts, thanks to his extensive
on-the-ground research. Over the last 20 years, he has visited almost
all of China's rivers, on foot, by raft or by car. He has followed the
environmental story of the Jinsha since the 1980s. On May 23, he was
awarded the Nikkei Asia Prize - which "recognises the achievements of
people and organisations that have improved the lives of people in Asia"
for his independent and sustained investigations into dams and the
environment.
The two men have never met, but they are by no means strangers. Zhang is
a staunch supporter of dams, while Yang is a representative of the
opposition. And their ongoing war of words shows the struggle between
hydropower and environmental protection in microcosm.
Controversy has dogged the Jinsha since 2004. The previous year, the
State Development Planning Commission (predecessor of the National
Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning
body) approved plans for a cascade of eight dams on the middle reaches
of the river. When the news broke, an opposition lobby of green NGOs,
experts and environmental protection officials quickly got organised.
In 2009, a crackdown on dubious environmental approvals for large
projects by the Ministry of Environmental Protection brought the
programme to a halt. Then in July 2010, the government ended a
moratorium on approvals for new dams, prompted by an urgent need to cut
carbon emissions. Zhang Guobao, at the time head of the National Energy
Administration, said that if energy-saving and emissions-reduction
targets for 2020 were to be met, China would need 380 million kilowatts
of hydropower capacity. That meant both approvals and construction
needed to speed up.
But even as China's hydropower sector geared up again, the row over
environmental protection versus development was raging on. Now into
2012, it appears as fierce as ever.
Lu Youmei, a hydrology and hydropower engineer and member of the Chinese
Academy of Engineering is broadly supportive of dam-building. Lu
admitted that there are problems to be addressed in the Chinese
hydropower sector, but said this is no reason to give up: "The key is to
look at the problems realistically, scientifically and rationally."
Lu said that, far from it being a case of development going too far in
China, river exploitation is actually lagging behind other countries.
National Energy Administration figures indicate China has the potential
to generate 542 million kilowatts of energy from hydropower, but is only
actually generating around 34% of that, 185 million kilowatts. This is
much lower than utilisation rates in developed nations of around 60% to 70%.
But Weng Lida, once head of the environmental protection department at
the Yangtze River Commission, insisted that hydropower development has
got out of control. "There are too many dams on the rivers in the
south-west, the rivers can hardly breathe," he said
And, early last month, the Ministry of Water Resources' Changjiang River
Scientific Research Institute, China Three Gorges Project Corporation
(CTGPC) and WWF published a report called "China's Environmental Flows
Research and Practice". The report concluded that there were already too
many hydropower plants on some parts of the upper Yangtze and that
untrammelled development was affecting the basin's ecological balance.
Chen Guojie, a researcher at the Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards
and Environment, is worried: if plans for the upper reaches of the
Yangtze go ahead as planned, 100 species of fish will die out, he warned.
Even Cao Guangjing, chairman of China Three Gorges Project Corporation -
the state-owned company behind the world's largest hydroelectric dam to
date - is cautious. With more dams, the coordination of water storage
and drainage will be problematic, he said; dealing with this challenge
is a work in progress, and hydropower development needs to take account
of this.
You can't squeeze all the value out of every drop of water, you need to
consider the environment's needs, he said. "Protect as you develop,
develop as you protect. That's the principle."
Deng Quanlun and Hu Feifei are reporters at Time Weekly, where this
article was first published.
________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list: china@list.internationalrivers.org
To be removed from the list, please visit:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2486/unsubscribe.jsp
Monday, July 2, 2012
Metolong Dam, Lesotho: Local labor dispute with Sinohydro
Thahane wants labour relations officer for Metolong
Sunday Express (Lesotho)
2 July 2012, Caswell Tlali
http://sundayexpress.co.ls/?p=6943
MASERU � Water Affairs Minister Timothy Thahane has ordered the Metolong
Authority to hire a labour relations officer who will be directly
answerable to him after a bloody clash between workers and bosses last week.
Thahane has also ordered the Metolong Authority to resuscitate the
security committee which comprises the police, the authortiy and
workers� representatives to avoid a repeat of last week�s mishaps.
The authority has also been instructed to ensure that there is a police
post near the Metolong Dam construction site.
"I have ordered the Metolong Authority to do these things because it is
important for us to avoid the unfortunate things that happened during
this week," Thahane said.
"It is important for us to handle the construction of this much needed
dam with care."
Thahane's directives to the Metolong Authority after employers of a
Chinese company hired to construct the dam stoned and injured bosses
during a pay dispute.
Sinohydro Corporation�s manager Song Yi Jun sustained some serious
injuries and was admitted to hospital for two days after he was hit with
stones by angry employees on Monday.
Also injured in the violent confrontation was Hlalefang Seoaholimo, the
national organiser of the Lesotho Workers Association (Lewa).
Matters came to a head on Monday after Song allegedly reneged on an
agreement to award a salary increment to the striking workers.
The workers allege that Sinohydro Corporation had last Friday agreed to
give the workers a M3 increment for every hour worked.
But at a meeting which was addressed by Seoaholimo on Monday, Song
allegedly reneged on the agreement and told the workers the company
could only afford a M1 increment per every hour worked.
This incensed the workers who started pelting Song with stones.
Workers at Sinohydro Corporation are said to be currently earning M6.20
per hour.
They are demanding M18.88 per hour for the lowest paid worker.
Thahane had earlier visited the construction site in an attempt to
negotiate a peaceful end to the stand-off.
"The construction of Metolong Dam is very important to Basotho and I
want the strike settled and the construction of the dam completed on
time," Thahane said to the workers.
He urged the workers' union to negotiate with the employer while workers
continued with their work.
Sinohydro Corporation is a Chinese-owned construction company that has
been tasked with building the M540 million Metolong Dam project.
The project is expected to end in 2014.
[Background Note: On June 22, 2012 Lesotho media had reported that
Sinohydro had agreed to double workers� daily food allowances, and give
workers transport allowances of M20 and food allowances of M10.]
________________________________________________
This is International Rivers' mailing list on China's global footprint, and particularly Chinese investment in
international dam projects.
You received this message as a subscriber on the list: chinaglobal@list.internationalrivers.org
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Sunday Express (Lesotho)
2 July 2012, Caswell Tlali
http://sundayexpress.co.ls/?p=6943
MASERU � Water Affairs Minister Timothy Thahane has ordered the Metolong
Authority to hire a labour relations officer who will be directly
answerable to him after a bloody clash between workers and bosses last week.
Thahane has also ordered the Metolong Authority to resuscitate the
security committee which comprises the police, the authortiy and
workers� representatives to avoid a repeat of last week�s mishaps.
The authority has also been instructed to ensure that there is a police
post near the Metolong Dam construction site.
"I have ordered the Metolong Authority to do these things because it is
important for us to avoid the unfortunate things that happened during
this week," Thahane said.
"It is important for us to handle the construction of this much needed
dam with care."
Thahane's directives to the Metolong Authority after employers of a
Chinese company hired to construct the dam stoned and injured bosses
during a pay dispute.
Sinohydro Corporation�s manager Song Yi Jun sustained some serious
injuries and was admitted to hospital for two days after he was hit with
stones by angry employees on Monday.
Also injured in the violent confrontation was Hlalefang Seoaholimo, the
national organiser of the Lesotho Workers Association (Lewa).
Matters came to a head on Monday after Song allegedly reneged on an
agreement to award a salary increment to the striking workers.
The workers allege that Sinohydro Corporation had last Friday agreed to
give the workers a M3 increment for every hour worked.
But at a meeting which was addressed by Seoaholimo on Monday, Song
allegedly reneged on the agreement and told the workers the company
could only afford a M1 increment per every hour worked.
This incensed the workers who started pelting Song with stones.
Workers at Sinohydro Corporation are said to be currently earning M6.20
per hour.
They are demanding M18.88 per hour for the lowest paid worker.
Thahane had earlier visited the construction site in an attempt to
negotiate a peaceful end to the stand-off.
"The construction of Metolong Dam is very important to Basotho and I
want the strike settled and the construction of the dam completed on
time," Thahane said to the workers.
He urged the workers' union to negotiate with the employer while workers
continued with their work.
Sinohydro Corporation is a Chinese-owned construction company that has
been tasked with building the M540 million Metolong Dam project.
The project is expected to end in 2014.
[Background Note: On June 22, 2012 Lesotho media had reported that
Sinohydro had agreed to double workers� daily food allowances, and give
workers transport allowances of M20 and food allowances of M10.]
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