Circle Of Blue | By: Keith Schneider | GPE – September 07, 2017:
Originally published July 14, 2016: Earlier this year, in an announcement that has become more routine around the world, Suy Sem, Cambodia’s minister of mines and energy, declared a moratorium on the construction of big hydropower dams until at least 2020.
The country’s decision to halt new dams follows rising distress in Southeast Asia over the financial, ecological, and social consequences of building big and expensive hydropower projects, especially on the Mekong River and its tributaries.
Cambodia joins a lengthening list of nations around the world that are reassessing big hydropower dams in an era when wind and solar power are less expensive, much easier to build, less damaging, and far less vulnerable to droughts and floods.
By no means have the nations of Africa, Asia, and South America completely lost their affection for big dams. The World Bank, the China Development Bank, and other powerful multilateral and national development banks continue to pour $US billions into projects to dam rivers in Africa, Asia, and South America.
But the level of investment in big water-powered electricity projects has been flat for much of the last decade, and is now being overwhelmed by financing for renewable energy, led by wind and solar power.
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