Opening Remarks:
His Excellency Mahmoud Abu Zeid
Minister of Public Works and Water Resources, Egypt

His Excellency opened his address by indicating his pleasure in attending the Consultation and welcoming the Commissioners, presenters and other participants to the meeting.

With 800 000 dams built, of which 45 000 are large dams of over 15 meters, and with 1700 dams currently under construction, large dams are symbolic of the process of economic and social development. The future context for water resource management needs to be set against the global context which can be characterised by a number of trends, including rapid and uneven population growth, development of mega cities, climate change, regional water shortages, increasing environmental awareness and recognition of human rights, public participation, and shifts in global financing of large infrastructure projects.

These trends must be viewed against the backdrop that 1 billion people do not have access to water sufficient for their needs and development aspirations. Dams, in particular large dams, play an important role in fulfilling these needs and aspirations by meeting demand for energy, industrial and municipal water, irrigation and flood control and management. In addition, dams may provide benefits in terms of enhancing navigation, recreation and fisheries. In 66 countries around the world, half of the electricity production is generated by hydropower. In 1998, more than 400 hydropower projects with more than 130 000 megawatts new electricity were built. Currently developing countries are investing more than $50 billion per year in hydropower development. Important projects are in process in some of the major river basins of the world, including the Congo, the upper Nile and the Amazon.

As such, decision-making on dams has become an important element in public decision-making and the costs of dams and the assessment of their alternatives have become key issues at local,
national and international levels. The underestimation of many of the direct and indirect costs of dams, and questions of who benefits and who pays for dams have often resulted in opposition to dam construction. The rights of local communities to access to local resources have often not been given adequate attention, exacerbating such problems.

The historical record shows that there is a linkage between dam construction and the flourishing of ancient civilisation. In 3200 BC, King Minas, who unified Egypt, constructed dykes to protect Memphis, 22 kilometres south of Cairo. The King's engineers paid attention to left bank and in addition to protecting the city from flooding, constructed dykes and cross-dykes to deliver water to Nubian hills. Kings of the 12th dynasty (2000 BC) constructed works on the right bank of the river creating a regulating reservoir to provide for summer flows. This scheme is the first known flood control and water supply reservoir, and the beginning of a long history of building dams and dam barrages on the Nile and its tributaries. These efforts are necessarily transboundary in nature due to the large catchment area that feeds the river. Currently the Nile countries are working on a cooperative framework for sharing and develop the water resources of the catchment.

The Aswan dam is Egypt's primary tool in economic development. Built to control and preserve water so as to develop to supply agriculture with sufficient water to develop projects and increase power generation. The dam is considered one of the greatest in the world. It is the largest rock-filled dam in the world containing 43 billion cum of material. The reservoir created holds 187.7 BCM of water and produces 10 GWH per year of electricity. In November 1993 the 61st ICOLD meeting in Cairo devoted its entire program (37 papers) to the impacts of the Aswan dam. No project has ever been publicly examined and criticised to such a degree. The conclusions of the proceedings of the meeting states:

"Some people might regret that we have not produced a financial appraisal, a thorough comprehensive post-audit, and full evaluation of consequences, but what is the use of the perfection in tracing and evaluating the shortcomings when the appraisals of some major benefits, such as lives saved during ten years of drought, and five years of high floods, cannot be costed. Is such a study meaningful when there are no alternatives to the project? As is in the case of the High Aswan Dam.

"So the discussions that took place during the symposiums were designed for a more practical purpose, ie to have a clear and objective understanding of the rights and benefits of the Aswan High Dam and how all impacts have been proved to be under control. Hence, if the negative impacts have been proven to be insignificant, the question is why does Aswan dam still have such a bad reputation?"

We are all aware of the world's water challenges facing this planet such as water scarcity, pollution, conflicts, inadequate access, fragmentation of management, and the decline of public finance.
The World Water Council has taken these challenges very seriously. We have initiated a worldwide exercise to define the vision of water, life and the environment for the 21st century.

To accomplish this task, we formed a World Commission on Water. The Commission, of which I and the Chair of WCD are members, has developed a vision for the future of water based on a work programme across sectors. Three years ago in 1996, we initiated the plans and on March 19, 1997 in Marrakech, we made a promise to develop the vision.

Work started in earnest with worldwide consultations in all sectors, including water for food, water for people, water for nature, water for energy and other sectors. Several panels of experts were assembled on energy, biotechnology, and information technology, social and institutional aspects, as well as scenario development and the modelling of the future. Regional consultations took place and some are still under way as we speak. All of this culminated in the building blocks for a vision for water that makes water everybody's business. Water shortage was an important issue at these meetings. For some, storage is no longer an option, it's a must. For others, it cannot simply be done.

We are planning to unveil the results of the vision exercise at World Water Council's second World Water Forum in The Hague March 2000. At this Forum, there will be a session devoted exclusively to dams at which the WCD will participate, enabling our two initiatives to create shared value. We hope that this opportunity will provide you with added value to your work.

Once again, I would like to thank you for being with us here today. I am certain that our discussions and recommendations would be considerable help to all countries in the planning and development of dams.