Fact check: are cascading dams better for Sarawak?

With talk of new dams in Sarawak going gangbusters in the media, we have fact-checked some of the claims that are being thrown around. When it comes to cascading dams, like the ones Premier Abang Jo wants to build on the Tutoh/Apoh rivers, they’re pitched as a less harmful alternative...

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650 signatures collected against proposed dam project

The petition against the proposed Tutoh/Apoh cascading dam demanding for community engagement and consultation, has successfully collected 650 signatures in less than 2 months since it was organized. Currently, the signatories to this on-going petition come from 19 communities within the affected area who are made up of Kayan, Penan,...

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Forest protection is Malaysia’s climate ace card

What hope for Malaysia we saw at the Clean Energy Collaboration conference in Kuching.  Everyone from ministers, Sarawak state authorities, NGOs and community leaders all met together to find an affordable and an environmentally and socially sustainable pathway for Malaysia to transform its energy system, and electrify its rural areas. ...

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How many dam bursts are too many?

In a warming climate, dams and downpours make for a dangerous mix This week, a dam breach in central Myanmar forced an estimated 50,000 people from their homes and flooded the country’s main highway. The Swar Chaung dam in Bago region overflowed as the result of this year’s particularly generous...

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Megadams are so last year

(and we couldn’t be more pleased) Last February, the residents of a small town in California’s Gold Country were told a 30 ft wall of water was headed their way. The men and women of Oroville ran through the streets in panic, and almost 200,000 people were evacuated from the...

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New research: building planned dams will significantly and irreversibly damage the environment

New paper in Nature analyses the wide-scale negative impacts of damming rivers in the Amazon basin. The Amazon basin will suffer significant and irreversible environmental damage if hundreds of planned dams are constructed. The hydrophysical and ecological disturbances will impact the Amazon basin’s floodplains, estuary, and sediment plume. The benefits will not...

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China’s Global Dam Builder at a Crossroads

The Chinese dam-building company Sinohydro, which is responsible for the construction of three hydroelectric dams in Malaysia, is failing to implement its own sustainable development policy framework. In this article International Rivers Policy Director Peter Bosshard examines Sinohydro’s continued evasion of its sustainability commitments, including its recent decision to consider building several...

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Borneo’s Killer Dams

Originally published in Counter Punch by Amanda Stephenson Sarawak, Malaysia, is located on the island of Borneo, the third largest island in the world. Sarawak is home to thousands of endemic species, forty indigenous groups, and one of the largest transboundary rainforests remaining in the world. The state is also suffering...

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