Asia Water Wire - Development

CAMBODIA: Planned Lao Dam Raises Concerns on the Mekong

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:49:20 -0500

By Andrew Nette - Newsmekong*

PHNOM PENH, Mar 28 (IPS) - The Lao government’s decision earlier this year to press ahead with plans to build the Don Sahong dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River in southern Laos is causing major concern in Cambodia and internationally.

CAMBODIA: Bowing to Regional Hydropower Demands

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:44:42 -0500

By Andrew Nette - Newsmekong

PHNOM PENH, Mar 21 (IPS) - For the Cambodian government, hydropower development represents great economic opportunities. But for non-government organisations (NGOs), and the communities they serve, dams pose severe social and environmental impacts.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Carbon Credits From a Water Mill

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 01:54:16 -0600

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

TENGANAN, Bali, Indonesia , Dec 19 (IPS) - When they next harvest the the terraced paddy fields on a gently sloping hill, the farmers in this village will reinforce a tradition that celebrates harmony between people and the environment -- and do their bit to slow down climate change.

PAKISTAN: Irrigation Links Gov’t with Farmers

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:04:22 -0600

By Irfan Shahzad*

KEERANWALA, Pakistan, Nov 21 (IPS) – Mansha, a middle-aged farmer here in this village in Punjab province, surveys his ready-to-harvest rice crop with delight and is optimistic about the next wheat crop to be sown after the rice harvest in mid-November.

CAMBODIA: Official Brings Water to the Poor – and Makes Profits Too

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 04:04:51 -0500

By Puy Kea*

PHNOM PENH, Oct 31 (IPS/AMIC) - A Cambodian public official has weathered assassination threats and a slow-moving bureaucracy in this post-conflict country to create one of the most trusted and safest water supplies in Asia.

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: MANTRA for Tribal Development

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:40:00 -0500

By Kalinga Seneviratne*

ORISSA, India, Oct 29 (IPS/AMIC) – Gram Vikas, one of India’s largest non-government organisations, has a simple solution to uplift rural Adivasi (tribal) communities across this eastern Indian state – it’s a MANTRA (Movement and Action Network for Transformation of Rural Areas) of all in, or all out.

INDIA: Fisherwomen Question Tourism's 'Magic'

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:14:53 -0500

By M Martin

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Kerala, Oct 1 (IPS) - Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney described his 2002 Kerala tour in one word – 'magical'. For thousands who throng the state's green villages, picturesque backwaters and beaches, the experience is no less than a 'Magical Mystery Tour’. But local fisherwomen say it means new and harsh realities for them.

DEVELOPMENT: Singapore and Iraq - Contrasts in Water Management

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:10:01 -0500

By Thalif Deen

STOCKHOLM, Aug 17 (IPS) - As the world faces new threats of water scarcity, triggered by phenomena like global warming and bioenergy demands, Singapore and Iraq have been singled out as two political extremes in water management.

Asian Development Bank Project Fails Fishermen

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:04:54 -0500

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 22 (IPS) - A planned survey to check the economic pulse of fishing communities living on the banks of South-east Asia's largest freshwater lake -- the Tonle Sap in Cambodia -- threatens to expose serious shortcomings in an Asian Development Bank (AsDB) anti-poverty initiative.

Dams on Salween Threaten Indigenous Groups

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:24:26 -0600

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Feb 28 (IPS) - Being a village headman means little if you live in a community nestling in the hills close to Thailand's northern border with Burma. More so, if officials have plans to use your village for a large ‘development' project.

Dam-Displaced Tribes Lose Fishing Rights

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 20:50:34 -0600

By Bharat Dogra

ITARSI, India, Feb 9 (IPS) - The philosophy of 'satyagraha' or non-violent resistance, first employed by Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, has been adopted by tribal fisherfolk in 44 hamlets on a dammed river in central India to protest the loss of their livelihoods.

Twin Disasters in the Making, Locals Warn

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 06:10:36 -0600

By Zofeen T Ebrahim

Centenarian Rehmat Bibi refuses to leave her home in Bhundar, an island off the Sindh coast in Pakistan.

KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan 31 (Asia Water Wire) -- To the developers of a resort project to rise on Bhundar island, Rehmat Bibi’s dilapidated hut must be quite an eyesore. Yet the spirited woman has so far stood her ground and refused to give in to the pressure – at first gentle cajoling, then sterner words – by the uniformed men to leave.

“I will not move an inch as I was here long before (the nearby) Port Qasim was here; even before this country came into existence,” says a defiant Bibi. “This is my home.”

Bibi says she has lived there since she was 10. “I will die here,” says the fragile old woman, taking a long puff at the hookah (hubble bubble) and ending her bold diatribe with a bout of cough.

Twin Disasters in the Making, Locals Warn

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:39:52 -0600

By Zofeen T Ebrahim

Centenarian Rehmat Bibi refuses to leave her home in Bhundar, an island off the Sindh coast in Pakistan.

KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb 4 (Asia Water Wire) -- To the developers of a resort project to rise on Bhundar island, Rehmat Bibi’s dilapidated hut must be quite an eyesore. Yet the spirited woman has so far stood her ground and refused to give in to the pressure – at first gentle cajoling, then sterner words – by the uniformed men to leave.

“I will not move an inch as I was here long before (the nearby) Port Qasim was here; even before this country came into existence,” says a defiant Bibi. “This is my home.”

Bibi says she has lived there since she was 10. “I will die here,” says the fragile old woman, taking a long puff at the hookah (hubble bubble) and ending her bold diatribe with a bout of cough.

Life Ebbs and Flows on the Tonle Sap

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 02:18:27 -0600

By Kalinga Seneviratne

CHHONG KNEAS, Cambodia, Jan 31 (Asia Water Wire) - Life ebbs and flows with hardships and vulnerability for the residents of this floating village at the northern end of Cambodia’s great lake, the Tonle Sap.

Water A Precious Commodity in Slums

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 05:25:00 -0600

By Morshed Ali Khan

DHAKA, Nov 23 (Asia Water Wire) - Rokeya Begum, her two children and her husband
Abdul Latif, a rickshaw puller, live in Begunbari Basti, one of many slums here in the Bangladeshi capital.