In the next few days, rivers will once again be in the international spotlight.
On 25 September, a large number of river events will be organised in over 100 countries and the European River Summit will take place frim Sept 29 – Oct 1 in Brussels. ERN will also be part of the programme.
> more info World Rivers Day
> more info European Rivers Summit
Emma Haziza, hydrologist on France inter: “Everything that happens in our lives is found in our rivers”
Finally global information on water and rivers, far from the usual dogmatism and shortcuts … 22 exciting minutes that show without ambiguity that the 6th planetary limit is crossed: that of water with the degradation of its quality and shortages just about everywhere, including in France!
To see this interview again, click here !
Emma Haziza is not at her first interview, in 2020 she was already on France inter. Did you know that agricultural consumption can account for 80% of water use in France in summer? To know more about it, it’s here.
On the occasion of the World Migratory Fish Day on May 21, SOS Loire vivante and EDF invite you to explore this exemplary site.
After many years of partial leveling and reconfiguration work, the result of our struggle, the site is now finished. By opening two huge gates, it allows migratory fish to pass through for 3 months a year, the rest of the year the water is turbined while respecting a minimum flow of 5m3/s for the Allier between Poutès and Monistrol d’Allier.
Reserve your place as soon as possible
The International Day of Action for Rivers cofounded by IR, ERN and others is a day dedicated to solidarity – when diverse communities around the world come together with one voice to say that rivers matter. That communities having access to clean and flowing water matters. That everyone should have a say in decisions that affect their water and their lives. That it’s our time to stand up for these rights, now more than ever.
We’re celebrating the 25th Anniversary of this Day for Rivers by also highlighting the importance of Rivers to Biodiversity.
The Durance : a “unnatural” river
We are more than 3 million people who depend on it for our greatest comfort (extraction of aggregates, irrigation, drilling for drinking water, cooling of the nuclear reactors of Cadarache, etc.), for this reason, humans have made it the most developed river in France with kilometers of infrastructures (weirs, dams, reservoirs, bridges, roads and highways, dwellings, warehouses, factories, etc.) per one kilometer of river
Humans put considerable pressure on rivers by exploiting them. It is 90% of the water of the Durance which is diverted to produce electricity for the most part.
Can we keep on in that way taken more than 5 centuries ago and accentuated these last 70 years? Another way of looking at things, another way of behaving with regard to our rivers and in particular the Durance, is conceivable. We are going to debate this, for this we will propose to you beforehand, some lines of thought, notably from the presentations of our guest Roberto Epple (hydrobiologist, founding president of the European Rivers Network (ERN), president of SOS Loire Vivante) but also from the members of our association (SOS Durance Vivante).
For those who wish to know more, you can already visit our website (French only)
Otherwise, we will meet on Saturday, February 26th in Manosque, salle des tilleuls 14h30. We will comply with the sanitary obligations of the moment.
France: PUBLIC POLICIES TO SAFEGUARD THE LOIRE SALMON: A TOTAL INCOHERENCE!
On the Allier, while EDF is completing work on the “new Poutès”, which will improve the situation of the salmon in the Allier, its own subsidiary, SHEMA, is building a hydroelectric power station that will perpetuate the negative impacts of the Vichy dam, which will reduce to nothing the efforts made upstream. Absurd and revolting!
>>read the complet Press release (in french only) edited by ERN-SOS Loire vivante and other NGO
While considerable efforts have been made by the State, local authorities, associations and citizens to safeguard the species, the Prefect of the Allier has just authorized the construction of a hydroelectric power station on the Vichy dam, definitively condemning the possibilities of the re-conquest of the ALLIER by the salmon and directly threatening its survival.
This irresponsible and fatal project must be stopped.
A group of 10 national and local associations, including SOS Loire Vivante, has signed an appeal to the Prefect of the Allier. They are considering legal action, both national and European, to stop this deleterious project and replace it with an environmentally responsible solution.
> Read the press release of the associations (french only)
>> See the appeal (french only)
Living River Europe coalition including WWF and EEB and ERN present a preliminary assessment of river basin management plans
Under the title “THE FINAL SPRINT FOR EUROPE’S RIVERS” and “NGO ANALYSIS OF 2022- 2027 DRAFT RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT PLANS”, WWF, EEB and other partners of the Living Rivers Coalition have presented a first analysis of the draft river basin management plans shortly before the end of the official public participation under the Water Framework Directive.
According to this analysis, 11 of the 13 river basins considered will not meet the WFD objectives by 2027. In almost half of the cases, the indicators examined on pollution, continuity, high and low water management, agriculture, hydropower, coal mining and renaturation measures were found to be largely insufficient. In addition to insufficient funding, the report cites the persistent lack of policy integration in areas such as agriculture, energy and infrastructure, as well as the frequent use of exemptions as the main reasons.
The report is available on the EEB website:
https://eeb.org/library/the-final-sprint-for-europes-river-report/
The WWF / Living Rivers Coalition press release can be found here:
https://www.wwf.eu/?uNewsID=3697866
Several texts, supported by ill-informed or ill-intentioned deputies and senators, from the lobbies of the protection of mills and small hydroelectricity, will be voted during the month of June in the Senate and then in the Assembly. They brutally call into question more than 25 years of national efforts and investments to give back to the rivers, sources of life of our territories, their essential functionalities to nature and to our societies and totally ignore the impacts on the already very degraded natural aquatic environments.
The Collectif Rivières Naturelles led by our association, with already 3300 supporters via the current petition, is opposed to these texts. It has written personally to each member of parliament and senator to appeal to their responsibility and ask them not to support these texts which are far from the general interest and completely out of step with the environmental emergency, the commitments of France and the European imperatives.
> Read the letter of the Collectif Rivières Naturelles (French only)
> Read the press release ((French only)
PHOTO / The reservoir on May 8 2020, showing the emptied reservoir and the extent of the flood water across Uzbek-Kazakh border
[image by: Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory]
article from coalition Rivers Without Boundaries
A year passed since May 1, 2020, when on the territory of Sirdaryo region of Uzbekistan, a breakthrough of the reservoir dam occurred, causing a flood. Buildings, roads, communications were destroyed. More than 60 thousand residents were evacuated in Uzbekistan and similar number in flooded districts of Kazakhstan. According to official data, 6 people died during the incident.
On April 30, at a briefing, First Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations, Major General Abdulla Kuldoshev named several general factors that led to the collapse of the Sardoba dam in Uzbekistan.
According to the General the Ministry of Water Resources failed to organize oversight on planning, design and construction work at a proper level. For example, The Rules for the Sardoba reservoir operation had not been approved by responsible officials prior to its filling. This process grossly violated technical and regulatory requirements.
Secondly, the design company UzGip LLC, in the process of preparing the working design documentation for the reservoir, made changes arbitrarily without observing the requirements established by the approved Feasibility Study. The working design documentation did not take into account the structural and seismic safety of the dam.
Thirdly, the contractor organization Uzbekistan Railways JSC and other subcontractors allowed the density of the foundation and the body of the dam, as well as the thickness of the filter and protective stone layer to be below the design parameters. (In other words they were saving on construction materials and skipped due stages in construction process).
For making mistakes and overlooking shortcomings in the design, construction and operation of the dam, 17 officials and responsible managers of the designer and construction organizations were brought to criminal responsibility. The indictment against them has been sent to the Supreme Court for review (however the court proceedings from day 1 were declared a “state secret”).
According to the General, now, within the framework of the criminal case, investigative actions are continuing on likely embezzlement of budget funds allocated for the construction of the reservoir. The court will soon give a legal assessment of the actions of all officials involved in the case. Additional information will be provided to the public then….
All in all this communication has not revealed anything new, compared with what public and experts knew soon after the accident. Although awkward attempts to blame weather, climate and burrowing pests (such as catfish and rodents) for the dam collapse were finally abandoned, still ordinary engineers and managers will be persecuted to shield from accusations higher-up officials.
People unhappy with how the government handles compensation and restoration were silenced in various ways, according to “The Diplomat”. Freedom of press was seriously limited on this case after several outlets linked possible corruption and mismanagement at construction site to Senator Sanginov, now the head of Uzbek Hydropower Company. Meanwhile a later investigation by Bellingcat and RFE have discovered that similar companies, allegedly linked to Sanginov, are also responsible for development of a large high-mountain reservoir at a new presidential residence inside a natural area strictly protected since soviet times and now used for trophy hunting. Topalang Water Construction Co. majority owned by a son of senator Sanginov was likely the general contractor for this new secret reservoir, which does not appear on books of Water Ministry. The construction became known once downstream villages experience water shortages, since the whole Shovvozsoy river went dry due to reservoir filling since 2018.
Unfortunately the promise of Uzbek leadership to investigate Sardoba dam catastrophe and make sure that those responsible get punished and corrupt hydro-engineering system is rectified have not been fulfilled so far and hopes for that are fading away.
ERN France
ERN is the official WWF Freshwater Partner in France and cooperates with WWF Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands and others
Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory]