Third WCD Forum Meeting
25-27 February 2001 - Cape Town, South Africa

Presentation of views about the WCD Report
Argwings Odera, Project Coordinator, Sondu-Miriu Advocacy Campaign, Kenya

Everybody wants to live in a clean environment … fresh air, flowers, harmony, safe drinking water and electricity.
Everybody, anybody whose lives in a dam-affected area please by a show of hands … everybody, anybody who lives downstream near a river dammed please by a show of hands.

(GESTURE)

It is not what you think. No! I am not trying to be rude or obscene. I am just attempting to show you a finger broken because I was trying to disseminate the kind of ideals in the WCD report.

Why was my finger broken?

Kenya police shot me in the shoulder, fired over 100 rounds of ammunition at dam affected people, put me in jail for eight days … I am now out on bail, faced with the possibility of many years in jail from trumped up charges like inciting the people affected by the Sondu-Miriu Hydro Power Project to oppose the project. I am also charged with trespass simply because I was told where the affected people live is a prohibited area. I am also charged with resisting arrest and publishing a false statement to Japan, a petition by the dam affected people to Japan to review the project before continuing ../funding it.

I had to sneak out of the country to be with you today to share in your knowledge, ideas and also let you know of what we dam affected people think of the WCD report and how it will influence our future process.

My name is Argwings Odera. I am from Kenya. I live with people terribly affected by the ongoing construction of the Sondu-Miriu Hydropower project in Nyanza, Kisumu. This is a mega-project funded by JBIC (Japan Bank for International Co-operation) and being implemented by a Kenyan Government state corporation also known as KENGEN (Kenya Electricity Generating Company).

How have we interpreted the WCD report?

WCD report and guidelines echoes our everyday desire. The desires to live just like those benefiting from electricity. But what is this we are hearing? Those major dam builders are quite predictably, attempting to lynch the guidelines. We have heard such comments that the report would make the process of building dams too costly and too time consuming.

I am not here to defend the guidelines because I was not one of the researchers or writers. I defend the report because the report aims to protect my environment, save our river the Sondu-Miriu River, defends my rights and that of my people. The report, I observe, also defends the rights of people hooked onto the gridline and the rights of dam builders to continue building dams … cautiously.

What are dam builders telling us? That the only ways to implement the WCD report is to stop energy sector development. How much money are we willing to pay to live in a clean, harmonious environment?

How much money … How much time do dam builders, dam brokers, you and I are willing to spend so that there can be a dam acceptable to both ICOLD and ICDRP?

Are dam builders saying … let us kill 10 indigenous people so that 100 people can benefit from electricity? Are dam builders telling us, let us deny 10 more people the source of their livelihood so that these 100 people can satisfy their energy needs.
Then when these dams fail, as they inevitably do, will dam builders say, hey lets move downstream, kill those 10 other indigenous people downstream so that those 100 people will have uninterrupted power supply from a second dam.

And what is the WCD saying? Our interpretation: The WCD is saying let us still provide those 100 people electricity. But also do not kill those 30 people. And by the way, why can't we provide those 30 people with electricity too and at the same time improve their physical and social environment.

And what are we saying; we the so-called indigenous people, we the so-called tribes. We say at last! Here is a bible! The gospel according to WCD is what we have been waiting for to bring sanity and rationale in dam building

And what are dam builders telling us? This is expensive ... this will be time consuming. This echoes the very problems we are faced with deep in the remote areas where dams are built.

For example, soon after my ordeal, a JBIC mission came to Kenya to have first hand information about what is happening in their Yen-funded project. Over two days, the community complained and presented evidence of how the project had subjected them to so much grief.

Then what did JBIC do? They told us: "This is purely a Kenyan problem. We are giving you until March to sort out your problems or we will stop the project."

It was then explained to the poor folks that they would lose their daily wages of US$2 as menial laborers if the project stopped.
Why? Is it because they find the community demands unrealistic, expensive and can only lead to the stopping of the project … the same old doomsday messages that dam builders give?

The people panicked and said: OK don't stop the project, but solve our problems first. What kind of problems are these that JBIC finds unrealistic, time consuming, expensive warranting them to walk out of the power project? A detailed list will be circulated but briefly their concerns center around their environment, the project's benefits to them and governance issues in the project.

What message did JBIC give its taxpayers when the mission went back to Japan? That the Kenyans have said they want the project to go on! Not a mention of the community demands to the Japanese taxpayers. It is a matter of time before JBIC continues ../funding this project while the very simple community grievances remain unresolved.

Is this what industry is telling us. Trash the WCD report, suffer the dam-affected people and let there be light?

Soon I will be moaning the death of three women. Three women on the verge of death. Victims of dust pollution from project activities in Sondu-Miriu. They now have TB. They are too poor to afford medical treatment. It is just a matter of time for them. They are not authorized use of a hospital built in the project area because it can only be used exclusively by the dam builders. During their funeral, I will carry under my armpit our only source of hope … the WCD bible.

Before I close, I would like to dedicate my remaining one minute to these three women and other dam affected people and environmental activists all over the world who have died under different circumstances or been incarcerated or harmed so that there can be light.

THANK YOU