Following widespread criticism of its funding for large-scale hydropower projects, the World Bank had moved away from such projects in the 1990s. However, it is making a major push to develop large-scale hydropower projects again. A 2009 World Bank review of hydropower projects noted the “overwhelming environmental and social risks" that had to be addressed, but concluded that Africa's and Asia's untapped hydropower sources would be greatly instrumental in providing electricity to people who lived without it. Recent fundraising initiatives have pushed for such projects in Congo, Zambia and Nepal. It is opening the taps for dams, transmission lines and related infrastructure and has top officials suggesting that this is crucial to resolving the tension between economic development and the drive to tame carbon use. “It is the old idea of a silver bullet that can modernise whole economies," said Peter Bosshard of International Rivers, a group that opposes the World Bank's hydropower plans, and pushes for smaller, community-based projects.
Source: Sanctuary Asia.
