South Asia

Introduction

The World Commission on Dams emerged out of a historical process that has seen large dams being discussed as one of the most intensely debated issues in sustainable development. One crucial aspect of the mandate of the WCD therefore, is to enable the development of an open and clear dialogue on the role of large dams in sustainable development. This meant that the Commission would establish an open process to ensure timely and appropriate opportunities for informed involvement in its work programme by the Commission's varied stakeholders. The Commission's communications strategy entails the open dissemination of summary and full documents. It also includes the use of the WCD Forum, regional consultations, stakeholder involvement in case studies and thematic reviews, a Commission presence at relevant international conferences, dissemination through the WWW site established for the Commission, and major media interaction to raise the profile of the Commission.

Consultations form an essential element of this communications process. They are planned in varied formats to meet the specific needs of the Commission's work programme. These include regional consultations, workshops, the WCD Forum, and technical review panels using electronic and other forms of conferencing.

Regional consultations are seen as a means of collating the extremely large body of diverse lessons, experiences and perspectives on large dams and their alternatives from a spectrum representing government and civil society, international organisations from the private sector, research and academic institutions, and water and power utilities. Four regional consultations have been scheduled during the life of the Commission.

The first of these was planned for Bhopal, in India in September 1998. An unfortunate turn of events led to the event being cancelled at the last minute. Fortunately for the Commission, the government and civil society in Sri Lanka stepped into the breach. An invitation extended by the Government of Sri Lanka to the Commission to host the consultation in Colombo was duly accepted. The fast response from the Sri Lankan Government and the openness of the support offered proved crucial in permitting independent and participatory sessions to be held at first regional consultation on South Asia on December 10-11,1998.

The process of identifying submissions

A call for submissions for presentation at the consultation was sent to a range of organisations and networks across the five countries of South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The call for submissions was advertised through a variety of means including by mail, the WCD web-site, and via e-mail lists.

A two-page summary of submissions for presentation was requested. In addition to submissions for presentation at the hearing, submissions not for presentation and other materials documenting the experiences and lessons learned with large dams and the sustainable development of water and energy resources in South Asia were encouraged. These submissions were requested in written, audio, video or other format.

Criteria were developed for presentation selection: the representative nature and expertise of the presenter, the relevance of the topic and the quality of the submission. Presentation proposals that were not formal submissions were also entertained.

The call for submissions drew an extremely encouraging response from the South Asian region. Over 100 submissions were received from India alone. With the shifting of the venue from India to Sri Lanka a second review was conducted and 28 selected (ensuring the widest range of representation) from a total of 120+ submissions received by the Commission.

Major Outcomes

In the view of the Commission the key outcomes to emerge from the consultation were:

• Approximately 200 people attended the two-day South Asia Regional Consultation. Of these, 28 were presenters representing five countries of the South Asian region. Ten out of the 12 Commissioners were present as were seven members of the WCD secretariat. A large number of the participants were attending the consultation as invited observers, some of whom had come on their own expense from different parts of the globe. The proceedings were declared to be open to the public and this drew some response mainly from Sri Lanka. Media representatives were also visible through out the proceedings with 20 journalists attending the press briefing held on the last day of the consultation.
• The consultation was conducted in a spirit of openness and enquiry. There was a marked lack of rancour or discord in spite of the many opposing positions expressed by presenters. The presentations and the ensuing discussions between the presenters and the panel of Commissioners were held in atmosphere that was noted by all the participants at the consultation for its cordiality.
• As summed by the Chair of the Commission in his concluding statement, the South Asia Consultation was a positive experience for the Commission Members because of the open, frank and balanced dialogue and the diversity of opinions expressed. For the Commissioners it was an acknowledgement that there are both positive and negative lessons to be learnt from the past. The common threads to emerge from the consultation would contribute valuable inputs into the work of the Commission.
• Feedback from the participants (ie the presenters), both during the event and afterwards through a small questionnaire distributed to them, provided a set of useful comments and pointers for the Commission. Comments were also received from individual Commissioners. Collectively, these will be valuable in planning and organising the remainder of the regional consultations. A summary of the feedback is available in the annexes.
• By all accounts the consultation was a success. It had managed to achieve what it had set out as its goals (access to stakeholder input, wide representation of expertise, learning from regional experiences in large dams and their alternatives). The factors that contributed to the successful conclusion of the consultation as pointed out in the introduction were: the independence allowed to the Commission in conducting the consultation in Sri Lanka, by its government and its people, and the openness and transparency with which the proceedings were conducted.
• A final outcome of the consultation was the very positive media coverage received both prior to and after the event in the Sri Lankan and some of the influential South Asian media. It is also worth mentioning here that after the cancellation of the Indian consultation there was, after the early round of negative reports on the Commission in the Indian press, a huge number of press reports that were extremely supportive of the Commission's work. A selection of clippings from the South Asian press is available on the WCD web site.

A local media agency was hired by the WCD to assist the Commission in raising awareness on the South Asia Consultation and on the Commission. With the help of the agency (the Sri Lanka Environmental Television Project) a number of activities were conducted. These included the preparation of a number of press releases, distribution of information to the local and regional media on the Commission and on the consultation, media briefings and interviews with Commission Chair, Members, Secretary General and consultation participants, and video and photographic documentation of the proceedings.

The outcome of this effort was the very positive coverage given to the Commission and to the regional consultation. A selection of press clippings are available on the WCD web site. Copies of the original clippings can be provided on request if necessary.