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)

ERNs at the IUCN World Congress in Marseille

ERN participate/organise in the following events :

  • 9 september 11h30 on a round Table ‘ Small Hydro Power in the mountains’ (session 53312, IUCN France Stand)
  • 9 september from 17h45 – 20h in the Cité des Associations de Marseille, Salle Phocea, 93 la Canebière, 13001 Marseille  presenting two videos in cooperation with  FNE PACA and Patagonia. download the flyer (fr)   ,
    Passe sanitaire or test obligatory
    Reservation obligatory (limited number of places) >>link

Last call for Big Jump !

Read more

Goldman Environmental Prize for the “Brave Women of Kruščica”

Photo : Maida Bilal received the award on behalf of the all the brave women of Kruščica. © Goldman Prize

++ River defenders from Bosnia and Herzegovina win the Goldman Environmental Prize ++ For the second time in the past three years an activist has received this prestigious award for campaigning against hydropower in the Balkans. ++ See the Riverwatch Press Release below

San Francisco, Kruščica, Vienna, Radolfzell, June 16th, 2021. On Wednesday evening (16.00 local time), Maida Bilal received the renowned 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize on behalf of the “brave women of Kruščica”. The prize is endowed with 200,000 USD. The Jury justified their decision on the grounds that hydropower is not green, and is one of the greatest threats to wild rivers and the people living along their banks. Maida Bilal and the other women fought for one of the last free-flowing rivers in Europe – and won. The group of women from the village of Kruščica in Bosnia and Herzegovina had occupied a bridge over their river for over 500 days and nights – despite violent eviction attempts by the police and even during the long, cold winter – and thereby prevented the construction of two hydropower plants.

The international foundation EuroNatur had already recognised their extraordinary courage and persistence with the 2019 EuroNatur Prize. Gabriel Schwaderer, Executive Director of EuroNatur, has welcomed the decision of the jury: “The commitment of these courageous women to their natural livelihoods is exemplary. I am delighted that the EuroNatur laureates will attract international attention with the awarding of the Goldman Prize, the so-called ‘Green Nobel Prize’”

This is the second time in the last three years that this award has gone to activists fighting against the construction of hydropower in the Balkans. In 2019, Ana Colovic Lesoska from North Macedonia was honoured for campaigning against dam projects in her country. “This is, as far as I know, a novelty and an extraordinary motivation for all those who stand up for the Blue Heart of Europe. It is also a political signal to the governments of the region as well as to the EU, financial institutions and banks to keep their hands off Balkan rivers.” said Ulrich Eichelmann, CEO of Riverwatch.

Background information

  • The Goldman Environmental Prize is a conservation prize that has been awarded annually since 1990 to six “environmental heroes” in the grassroots movements. A prize is awarded to people from each of the regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, islands and island states, North America and South and Central America.
  • The recording of the awards ceremony can be watched on demand HERE
  • This is a joint press release by EuroNatur and Riverwatch
  • The “Save the Blue Heart of Europe” campaign aims to protect rivers of high natural value in the Balkans, which are threatened by over 3,500 hydropower projects. The campaign is coordinated by the international NGOs Riverwatch and EuroNatur and is implemented jointly with partner organizations in the Balkan countries. The campaign is coordinated by the NGOs Riverwatch and EuroNatur and carried out in conjunction with partner organisations from the Balkan countries. The partner organisation in Bosnia-Herzegovina is made up of the Center for Environment (CZZS) and ACT.
  • The campaign, “Save the Blue Heart of Europe”, is supported amongst others by the Manfred-Hermsen-Stiftung.

Further information

Christian Stielow – EuroNatur, christian.stielow@euronatur.org, Tel.: +49 (0)7732 – 92 72 15
Cornelia Wieser – Riverwatch, cornelia.wieser@riverwatch.eu, Tel.: +43 (0)6504544784

 

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

 

From July 5 to 11, Dam Removal Europe joins the Big Jump

Indeed, from July 5 to 11, Dam Removal Europe joins the Big Jump with its crowdfunding action in favor of dam removal projects.

This year, the theme of the Big Jump is “Free Rivers”. This means that the Big Jump is dedicated to the removal of dams and other obstacles on rivers across Europe, in order to bring them back to life.

To raise awareness of the dramatic situation represented by the existence of more than a million obstacles and, at the same time, to launch very concrete actions on the ground, we are launching a crowdfunding week from 5 to 11 July 2021, at the same time as the Big Jump.

This operation allows any group or organization to register a dam to demolish. They can then relay this project to their networks and get donations to carry out their river action.

Register your dam removal project before June 20th by following all the information given in the document available here.

It will then be able to benefit from the crowdfunding week planned from July 5 to 11!

“En quête d’eau” : a great french project to discover

The project “In search of water” is a participatory science program launched by the French Office of Biodiversity, to which every French citizen can contribute.
Its objective: to improve the knowledge of the flow of our rivers,
How can we do this? By completing the existing scientific data with your personal observations of the flow of rivers
Indeed, the level of the rivers is subject to more or less extreme variations which tend to increase. Is this a consequence of global warming? Or of the inappropriate exploitation of water resources? It is the observation of each one that will allow us to analyze and understand these phenomena.
Become an observer of the project!
All the information to find by clicking here

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.

 

The international Dam Removal Europe seminar starts tomorrow!

This year, Dam Removal Europe International Seminar is being organized by WWF (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Dam Removal Europe partners, and in cooperation with regional and international partners. It will take place online from 4 to 7 May 2021 (every afternoon from 2 to 5 p.m. Central European Time).

  • May 4, 2021: What is on stake? Why do we need dam removal?
  • May 5, 2021: How to push dam removal forward?
  • May 6, 2021: Benefits of dam removal to nature and people
  • May 7, 2021: Political frameworks and financing

ERN will be among the speakers on the subject of the removal of large dams on the Selune.

You can still register !

>> Find the whole program and register online