IN THE NEWS: "World Bank fallacy of kinder, gentler dams"
/By Tom Fawthrop [Asia Times, 4 November 2017]
Multilateral lender's promotion of Laos' Nam Theun 2 and Xayaburi dams as exportable models of sustainable hydropower willfully ignores criticism of their age-old adverse impacts...
"Carl Middleton, deputy director of the Center for Social Development Studies at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, said: 'While the dam did provide better resettlement compensation for those displaced and more information disclosure, on the other hand, long term livelihood viability for those resettled is uncertain, impacts on the downstream community have not been adequately addressed and the conservation dimension of the project is seriously flawed.'...
Aerial view of Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River. Photo: iStock/Getty Images