Second WCD Forum Meeting
Sharing the Knowledge - Charting the Future
April 6-8, 2000 - Cape Town, South Africa

Opening Speech
Professor Kader Asmal, WCD Chair

Friends and colleagues - welcome to Cape Town where it is my great pleasure to open this second meeting of the WCD Forum. For those of you who have joined us since then I would like to welcome you to this group that was at the very origins of the Commission 3 years ago this month.

I don't suppose you have been dragged too unwillingly to this beautiful corner of Africa and for some of you this may have been the excuse you were waiting for to finally come and see the Mother City and enjoy the delights of the Cape. In your short time here I hope you will also appreciate the practical steps taken to improve living standards and opportunities in a city of contrasts between the townships you may have passed near the airport and the conspicuous consumerism of the Waterfront.

This is the first International Commission to be based in Cape Town and naturally we are delighted by the international recognition that this brings to our city and to South Africa as a whole. So, welcome once again.

When we last met in Prague a year ago, the Commission was in the process of launching an ambitious and far-reaching programme to address the mandate that has been given to us, and on that occasion we were at pains to share and explore with you how we intended to proceed, and to seek your support and collaboration in learning from the global experience with large dams and their alternatives.

At that meeting we agreed to work together and we now meet again to share the findings of the last year, and to discuss the way forward with you. It is a major tribute to the interest in the Commission that some 60 individuals and organisations have accepted our invitation to be here today. Many thought when we began that the Commission would only meet once before being torn apart by feuding factions. I am pleased to say these doomsayers have been confounded and the strong turnout here today demonstrates that the process is stronger than ever.

I can also say very candidly that without your strong support we would not have achieved the quality results that you will hear about at this meeting. Looking around this room there are many faces familiar to us from our regional consultations on 4 continents. Forum members have sent submissions, reviewed elements of our work programme and many have maintained a regular and constructive interaction with the Secretariat, often sharing confidential or sensitive information with us in the knowledge that this was essential if the Commission is to succeed.

Before this meeting groups from Industry and from NGOs have held their own preparatory meetings and discussed the knowledge base and their strategy for the meeting - all this demonstrates that one of our key objectives, of creating space for dialogue, is being achieved.

Commissioners have also not been idle. This will be our seventh meeting 3 of them since Prague (Sao Paolo, Cairo, and an informal meeting in Hanoi) to discuss progress. Commissioners have also participated in meetings with industry and NGOs and gone to hear direct field experience of dams by participating actively in the second case study meetings and undertaking site visits after regional consultations. We have therefore been extremely active in seeking to fully understand the issues and I am confident that the Commission can and will reach agreement on far-reaching principles that go beyond dams to the heart of the discourse on sustainable development.

This meeting is a key one - we want to share the findings, discuss emerging issues and respect the commitments we made in Prague. The work programme is now virtually complete and we will now embark on the sytnthesis. This represents an unprecedented effort by a commission to document global experience with dams, while engaging in a transparent and participatory process that includes perspectives from all sides of the debate. In doing so we have come to realise the enormous ramifications of the dams debate, the way in which it varies from region to region and how holders of strongly divergent interests and paradigms may occasionally come to blows. The knowledge base does not represent the Commission's final report, nor a woolly, lowest common denominator consensus but a rather frank presentation of divergences. We do not pretend that the Commission has been able to gather the ultimate wisdom on any one issue, but collectively the reports represent a wealth of knowledge capable of giving direction to the Commission's discussions. It is now up to the Commission to rise to the challenge, weigh up the issues and draft the final report. In discussing the reports presented here today we are now moving towards addressing the major challenges ahead - you can best this process by keeping your eyes on the big picture rather than focussing on minor criticism or detail. (Please send that to the Secretariat in writing.)

All Commissioners will be here today or tomorrow and will be in listening mode. Do not expect leaks, premature announcements, or consultation on the content of the draft final report. For although we have achieved a remarkable degree of progress on the key issues to be addressed, we must respect the integrity of the process the reference group launched Gland by allowing the nominated Commissioners to reach their own consensus on sensitive issues in their own time and in their own way.

However one thing I can "leak" with no qualms is that the Commission will not say "no more dams". Rather it will focus on identifying areas of convergence where we can move forward together, agreeing on where good options assessment, and where dams are chosen as the best option,, better planning, better social and environmental safeguards and better operations can help to generate win-win situations for more equitable and sustainable development on the ground. Dams per se may not in fact be the problematic issue. - perhaps it is the flawed process of decision making that has been at the centre of the conflicts associated with dams. Our report will lay out the lessons that have been learned and the challenges that lie ahead. The principle of informed choice lies at the heart of our work and participation, transparency and knowledge of the full costs and benefits are essential elements of successful decision making in development.

Full assessment of all available options to meet the needs of society is clearly a key part of the process and the Commission will be discussing who should undertake this assessment and distinguish the roles of government, civil society, private sector and, where appropriate, international donors.

Better planning requires recognition of the power of dams to redistribute water that is an increasingly valuable natural resource. In the past, it was all too easy to ignore and marginalise some groups and to ignore the implications for down-stream environments and people. In future these impacts will have to be more explicitly analysed and addressed during planning, and more attention placed on increasing the certainty of the project outcome for all parties by ensuring that promises made are really implemented, and benefits are shared more equitably.

Better operations of existing dams is also a key consideration and the Commission will be reviewing the options available for optimising the benefits from existing infrastructure before new projects are developed. Our greatest challenge is to avoid being prescriptive by seeking to make decisions on behalf of others, as each dam is a unique undertaking - both in terms of its location and design as well as its social, economic and political context.

The Commission will meet in closed session for 3 days immediately after this forum meeting, to discuss the final report and its key messages. Your constructive input in plenary, in working sessions and in individual interaction with Commissioners and the secretariat will help influence this outcome, and I urge you to use this opportunity to make your views known and to help the Commission tackle some of the "tricky issues" that have arisen in the course of our work. You will see that many of our Forum Briefs end with questions rather than answers, because they involve value judgement or political judgement and the future is not clearly charted by recent past experience. I would like therefore to stress that there is no simple mechanistic link between the findings of these reports, and the conclusions of the Commission. The findings inform our discussions but do not define or circumscribe them.

The Forum plays a key role especially now that the Commission can see the end of its mandate, and is confident of producing its final report. One of the issues on the agenda for this meeting is the question - what happens next? The whole WCD process has been an innovative one and careful thought is now required about what comes next - no-one can prejudge the results of the Commission, and we are not asking you for your blanket approval of everything in the final report to be launched in November.

However planning must start now if the provisions of the report are to be implemented and not just sit, gathering dust, on shelves around the world. In contrast to other recent Commissions, that shall remain nameless, the Commissioners share the belief that we must produce practical solutions for the future with sufficient relevance that their use will be adopted and promoted by industry, donors and civil society alike.

We are also convinced reports do not sell themselves, and many new ideas will have to be carefully discussed in a range of fora. I have therefore asked the Secretariat to plan for a 6 month dissemination phase to promote the conclusions and recommendations of the Commission within the international community. I hope you will join us in promoting the results of this collective process. Now is the time to put the necessary procedures in place to ensure that all our hard work over the last two years does not simply join the dustbin of history, but makes a tangible contribution to future water resources management for the benefit of a more equitable, and sustainable world.