NGOs critique hydropower association voluntary assessment tool

(IRN, Berkeley, October 2010) The International Hydropower Association, a dam industry lobby group, has published a draft Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (IHA Protocol), saying it has "the potential to make a substantial contribution to advancing sustainability in the hydropower sector". Yet the document risks weakening existing social and environmental standards in the dams sector, and allows the hydropower industry - an interested party - to define which projects are considered sustainable.