Word: dams
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...rescue work continued, authorities ordered inquiries into the dams' collapse. The structures, built 24 years ago, had been sold by one mining company to another before being taken over by the present owner, the Prealpi Mineraria company of Bergamo, in 1980. The dam complex had consisted of two earthen dams that had created wash basins for filtering and extracting fluorite, a mineral used in making glass. Recent heavy thunderstorms were blamed for the immediate collapse of the dams, but some experts alleged that there might have been an excessive buildup of mud in the lakes from the mineral-extraction process...
...Such big dreams will inevitably come at a cost. Hydropower, once touted as cheap, clean energy, has fallen out of favor in recent years. In 2000, a report by the World Commission on Dams found that in developing countries the damage to communities and environment from building dams was rarely offset by the economic and developmental gains, which often failed to meet expectations. Assuming the World Bank approves funding for the project, Nam Theun 2 will be the first major new dam project the bank has supported in a decade. Opposition to the project has been fierce from international environmental...
...their faith, says Porter, is a slew of economic reports and social and environmental impact studies they demanded of developers?all of which have been made available for public scrutiny. The Bank believes there are enough safeguards and mitigation measures now in place to minimize the impact of the dam and insists it has extracted guarantees from the Laos government that revenue will be used to reduce poverty...
...project as big as this, you cause environmental damage. Fact!" says Peter Goldston, a booming-voiced Australian who is technical director of Nam Theun Power Co., the consortium building the project. "But our project allows us to mitigate some of the damage." Goldston, 61, has worked on seven dam projects in Australia, Cambodia and the Philippines, dating back to 1966. "We did some terrible things during that time, no doubt about it," Goldston says. "But times have changed, so we have had to change, too." The World Bank's Porter agrees: "We have learned our lessons from the past...
...What makes a difference in people's lives is the small stuff-a mature female goat, a loan of $50, money for school fees, a small community-built dam to trap water for the dry season. The world needs to stop initiating and supporting wars and instead open borders to free trade. We should withdraw support from dictators so that democracy can work. Let's spend our time, energy and resources on making friends and addressing the alienation that encourages terrorism to thrive. Let's stop taking away from others so that they don't have enough while we have...