poster

Conference debate: The Durance – rivers sick of humans? Is a renaturation possible?

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 !

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

 

Loire salmon: The coup de grace in Vichy?

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)

Most European rivers will not achieve good ecological status by 2027 (Living rivers Europe Coalition)

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

 

Historic threat to our rivers: senators and deputies to vote soon

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)

> SIGN THE PETITION !

 

 

 

Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory]

Sardoba dam collapse (Ouzbekistan) : one year after, secrecy prevails…

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]

A year after Sardoba dam collapse secrecy prevails: All we know – the catfish and rodents not guilty!

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.

 

03/22/2021 Debate on Vichy dam (France): one more hydroelectric power station on a highly migratory river?

SHEMA (a subsidiary of EDF) plans to install and operate a hydroelectric power station on the Allier on the left bank of the Vichy dam-bridge. The project, still little known by the citizens, is sensitive because it will impact the Loire and Allier, a major axis of migration of the Salmon whose protection is at stake at the European level !
To give you an opinion on this project, SOS Loire Vivante-ERN, the Association Saumon Sauvage, the association Protection du Saumon, Allier Sauvage, the FRANE and other partners offer you
a webinar-debate (only in french, no translation sorry)
on March 22nd
4pm to 6pm.

Registrations are open (only in french, no translation sorry)
>>More information by clicking here

Report cover page

Hydropower in Europe : Transformation – not development (WWF Report)

European rivers are the most fragmented in the world, contributing to the rapid decline in freshwater biodiversity.
As a result, a drastic transformation of the hydropower sector is urgently needed to reduce its environmental
impact. This can be achieved through several steps: the first one is to stop building new hydropower plants which worsen the fragmentation of rivers and lead to the loss of precious habitats and species.

The second step is to lessen the environmental impact of existing plants through plant environmental refurbishment. From ecological flows to acquiring knowledge on fish migration patterns, hydropower plants can be adapted and managed in a more nature- sensitive manner, as illustrated by a case study on the Allier River in the Loire Valley, France.

The third step is the restoration of the rivers’ natural functions,
in particular continuity and habitats. The case study on the construction of a reproduction channel next to the Imatra hydropower plant in Finland, illustrates active restoration measures that should be taken to complement mitigation measures at the plant itself.

download the WWF Report :  https://www.wwf.eu/what_we_do/water/?uNewsID=2329866 

 

More than one million barriers fragment Europe’s rivers !

As part of the Amber project, a European atlas of dams and other obstacles was published this year. It took 4 years of census work, on 2700 km of rivers to complete this project, which is completed over time (see our news of last July 06). To date, the updated figure is staggering!  More than 1.2 million obstacles prevent the free running of our rivers and consequently their life …

A first study drawn from this database was published on 16/12/20 in the journal Nature (article to read here), signed by 20 researchers with Barbara Belletti, specialist in geomorphology at the CNRS and the University of Lyon, as main author.

 >> Discover the Atlas on line

Infografie

Worldwide more than 500 dams planned inside protected areas: Study

More than 500 dams planned inside protected areas: Study (source Mongabay)

by  on 5 August 2020

  • More than 500 dams are either under construction or planned within protected areas over the next two decades, according to a new study.
  • The study found that more than 1,200 large dams already exist within protected areas.
  • The authors strongly encourage governments to avoid constructing dams in or near protected areas and instead to look toward renewable energies such as wind and solar.
  • The researchers express concerns about ongoing rollbacks to environmental protections, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hundreds of dams are planned within global protected areas, a prospect that threatens people, plants and animals that rely on the lifegiving waters of free-flowing rivers.

According to a first-of-its-kind global analysis published in the journal Conservation Letters, 509 dams, or 14% of the total currently under construction or planned for the next two decades, are set to be built in protected areas.

“The sheer number of dams that are planned within protected areas is alarming,” said Michele Thieme, lead author of the study and lead freshwater scientist at WWF. “Rivers are the lifeblood of ecosystems. Any policy that aims to conserve nature must prioritize the free flow of rivers.”

The researchers overlaid data on planned dams from the Global Dam Watch database onto maps from the World Database on Protected Areas to arrive at the number. The team also identified 1,249 large dams already in place within existing protected areas using the Global Reservoir and Dam Database (GRanD).

Worldwide, rivers aren’t what they used to be. A 2019 study revealed that two-thirds of the world’s longest rivers are no longer free-flowing. These long rivers (more than 1,000 kilometers or 621 miles long) are blocked by dams and infrastructure. This fragmentation blocks the flow of water and nutrient-carrying sediments to downstream habitats, altering ecosystems and impeding the migration and reproduction of fish and other freshwater species

read the complet article (Mongbay Website)