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I.1 Social Impacts of Large Dams Equity and Distributional Issues
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I.1 Social Impacts of Large Dams: Equity and Distributional Issues 1.0 BACKGROUND 1.1 Introduction 1. Large dams represent instances where the availability of critical resources is expanded or reduced, and where needs and priorities of interest groups interact in different ways. Large dams (hydropower dams, irrigation dams, etc.) increase most of the time, but not always, the availability and accessibility of electricity, irrigated farmlands, and/or fresh water at the local, regional and national levels. These benefits, where achieved, come at a price. The reservoirs of large dams submerge agricultural, forest and inhabited lands. The development or expansion of irrigated lands is sometimes realised at the expense of wetlands and traditional uses of floodplains (recession agriculture, fishing and herding). Whatever their objectives, large dams alter hydrological cycle and biodiversity of rivers upon which depend the livelihoods of riparian communities. Such an alteration (for example the augmentation of minimum flows during the dry season) involves positive and negative impacts. Where hydropower is the main purpose, often, urban commercial, industrial and residential sectors benefited more. Often dams create displacement and involuntary resettlement of people to other areas, may induce important population movements in downstream areas and attract immigrants and/or constrain local inhabitants to move to new locations. All these have got livelihood and welfare consequences to the people involved. (The issue of displacement, resettlement and rehabilitation is addressed in a separate thematic review. Thus, the Social Impacts thematic review will not deal with the displacement, resettlement and rehabilitation aspects). 2. Riverine areas have historically been densely populated, and have always been highly disputed areas. Even in the most hostile climatic zones, the fertile alluvial soils of river valleys have offered unique refuges for a great number of human and animal populations. The Euphrates and Tigris, the Nile, the Indus etc. have hosted some of the world’s most ancient and glorious civilizations and been home to valuable cultural heritage. The riverine communities have developed highly sophisticated and elaborate social organizations and structures (including for example land tenure arrangements). They have acquired a keen knowledge of river basin ecology and hydrology, and have adapted techniques of sustainable use of existing resources (water management techniques, farming systems, etc.) When confronted with waves of immigrants superior in access to information and resources to the valley, riverine communities may be at a disadvantage. Movements to other areas and efforts to adapt to a new environment are only the visible part of the problem. They may be accompanied by serious social trauma and conflicts not often accounted for. 3. Large dams are also instruments of change in the livelihoods of riverine communities. It can also affect people living in areas remote to the river valley: urban and industrial centres. Gains and losses accompany these changes. In many cases, large dam projects, specifically irrigation dams, restructure food production, consumption and distribution patterns, for example, by bringing a shift from recession or rainfed to irrigated agriculture, introducing new crops, increasing or reducing the labor demand and altering agricultural cycles. New production technologies and an increased influence of commodity market prices may accompany such transformations. These changes could mean greater food insecurity or greater vulnerability for certain social groups, while bringing prosperity for other groups. It is essential to understand what the gains and losses are and how they are distributed. These questions are among the currently debated issues on large dams. 4. Women are generally disadvantaged across the social and economic spectrum. Over the last decade, international funding agencies attempted to inform large dam projects of gender issues. For several large dam projects, increasing the availability of and access to social and economic resources of critical importance to women (fresh water, farmlands through irrigation, return migration of men, etc.) was one of their objectives. However, large dams are perceived to have imposed a disproportionately high cost on women. The World Bank's OED assessment also noted that these projects "…were largely oblivious of the gender aspect of resettlement" (1998,4: Operations Evaluation Department. 1998. Recent Experience With Involuntary Resettlement. Overview. Document of the World Bank. Report No. 17538, June.). The issue of gender is to be addressed in this review. 1.2 Main Issues 5. There is convergence of views among all parties in recognising that there are social impacts caused by dams and that there is a need to pay attention to them. The divergences are on:
Concept of Project Affected People and Issues of Concern 6. The concept of affected people needs to be clarified. Where the emphasis is placed on negative consequences of dams, the concept of affected people has been used normally to refer to communities involuntarily displaced. However, the concept of affected people is used here to include all people living in upstream, downstream and command sections of dammed rivers, as well as within urban and industrial centers benefiting from transfers of electricity and water. Women are one of the key group among the affected people. 7. This thematic review will focus on analysis of positive impacts (such as increases in irrigated land, food production, employment opportunities, wage level, improvements in nutritional and health status of the population; local and regional economic development, etc.) and negative impacts (such as position of small and marginal farmers, land concentration, loss of access to common goods, traditional knowledge, social cohesion, cultural impacts, health impacts, etc.) downstream, upstream and in command areas. This analysis will also include impacts at regional and national level (food production, food security, population's nutritional status change, poverty alleviation, etc.). A better framework for understanding of distribution of costs and benefits across social and economic groups and areas/regions is one of the main objectives of this thematic review. Given the fact that awareness about mitigation measures to deal with social and environmental impacts have changed over time, this analysis will also examine how the nature and extent of social impacts have changed. Some of the key issues to be reviewed are outlined below. Diverging perspectives 8. From the dam proponents' point of view, as reflected in the ICOLD position paper, the impacts of dams and reservoirs on the people, their land and settlements, their economy and traditions are inevitable and undeniable. They recognize the need for corrective actions geared towards ensuring that the people directly affected by dams are better off than before. 9. All parties in the dams debate agree on the need for paying attention to social aspects and equity dimensions of dam projects. However, dam critics consider these as key issues of unsatisfactory performance of dams. The 1994 Manibeli Declaration, the 1997 Curitiba Declaration and the 1998 Walker Creek Declaration strongly charge large dams of being inequitable. In these declarations, the accounts of large dams with respect to equity are particularly bleak. Large dams are perceived as having essentially ‘benefited large landholders, agribusinesses and speculators’, while they ‘dispossessed small and marginal farmers, rural workers, fisherpeople, tribal, indigenous and traditional communities’, and violated human rights. The ‘environmental and social costs’ of large dams are considered to ‘have fallen disproportionately on women, indigenous and tribal communities and the poorest and most marginalized sections of the population’. Thus, the viewpoint that large dams have ‘impoverished' several groups requires careful consideration. It is also important to understand the way dams affect patterns of access to and management of land, water, labour and capital. Further, the situation of women in the context of large dams is to be reviewed. 10. There are other views on this issue. The World Bank's review concluded that ‘rural populations … receive a large share of direct and positive impacts from large dams". Dam related benefits included jobs generated for unskilled rural workers at the construction stage, the mitigation measures accompanying resettlement programs, community water supply, and irrigated agriculture which ‘strongly benefits the rural economy’ (OED, 1996:23). As a result, instead of impoverishing communities, large dam projects - especially irrigation dams - are perceived as ‘a powerful instrument of rural poverty reduction’ (OED, op. cit. 22). These conclusions will be reviewed. 11. Another dimension of the debate states that analysis of the concept of equity in sharing of resources should not be restricted to local levels, but also examine benefits and impacts at regional and national levels. It is argued that priority should be given to economic efficiency, which when achieved inherently generates benefits for the entire community. Following this rationale, resources generated by high-cost investments like large dams are to be put in the hands of those groups or institutions better equipped and prepared to use them in the most efficient way. Revenues generated from this efficient use of dams-generated resources (freshwater water, irrigation lands, electricity) have positive basin-wide, regional and national impacts which eventually benefit the poor. This implies giving priority to industrial water and energy supply and allocation of irrigation lands to commercial farmers. This might also mean exclusion of certain groups. The role of large dams in regional and national development and its impact on distribution of economic and social benefits to various groups and areas are key issues to be addressed in this thematic review. 12. The extent to which large dams have contributed to food production, food security and poverty alleviation at the local, regional and national level is another dimension requiring careful analysis. Food security means ability to gain access and consume food. Further, given the level of investments made on large dams, the analysis may also focus on whether non-large dam alternatives would have achieved the level of food production, food security and reduction in levels and intensity of poverty. Sustainability of gains in food production, food security and poverty alleviation also merits review. 13. Distribution of gains and losses associated with dams is more than a mere equity issue. It poses the very question of the effectiveness of dams as development instruments. The question is, how far dams deliver stated irrigation / power / water supply and other objectives along with adequately addressing equity and distributional issues - fairer distribution of benefits and costs. For example, while viewing large dams as an instrument in facilitation of development, the impacts are focussed in terms of rural vs urban, local vs national, minority interest vs majority interest, rights of indigenous peoples vs national goals of development. The issue is, how the benefits of large dams were structured along social, economic and regional lines. This is an important issue for examination in this review. 2.0 SCOPE OF WORK 14. This thematic review will assess development orientation and equity and distributional impacts of large dams projects. It will:
3.0 LINKAGES 3.1 Linkage to other thematic reviews 15. By covering impacts downstream, upstream and in the command areas of large dams, this thematic review complements that on Displacement, Resettlement, Rehabilitation, Reparation and Development which focuses more on upstream (reservoir-site) impacts. By addressing equity and distributional and gender aspects, this theme is cross-cutting in nature and overlaps with other thematic reviews such as on Resettlement, the theme on Indigenous People and Vulnerable Ethnic Minorities, and the theme on Financial, Economic and Distributional Analysis. Some issues covered in this latter theme (for example the methods for analysing distributional aspects at the local, national and regional levels) complement this review which seeks to improve the understanding of actual impacts of large dams and the way they are distributed among various groups and spatial scales. 16. This theme is also complemented by other themes on options assessment to the extent that equity and distributional aspects will be analysed in each of the options considered. 3.2. Linkages to outputs and to other WCD inquiry methods 17. This theme covers an important aspect of the development effectiveness of large dams. It responds to the questions: "Who gained? Who lost?" Specific examples of this type of information will be provided by case studies. The thematic review will provide the detailed information on distributional aspects, not possible to collect in the cross-check survey. In addition to the above output, this review theme will also contribute to the development of criteria and guidelines, especially regarding equity and gender considerations. In particular, it will identify a set of practices ensuring a proper treatment of basin-wide social impacts of dams, and a fair distribution of their costs and benefits between the different impact groups and impact areas. 4.0 IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS 4.1 Procedure and Consultant Team 18. Two experts will lead the review process and will coordinate the drafting of the consolidated report, addressing the issues outlined in scope of work. The academic background and areas of specialization of these two lead-writers are complementary and will allow balanced consideration of small- and large-scale impacts of large dams in the various economic and geographical settings. In order to ensure consideration of a range of perspectives, will be provided from specialized inputs from other experts. 19. The thematic study process will be based on extensive review of existing literature on the matter, and of monographs of dam projects from the experts’ own experience and from results of current WCD case studies are they become available. 4.2 Review Panel 20. WCD will provide the list of review panel members by mid August 1999. This list will comprise experts from various regions of the world and with various backgrounds and perspectives. 4.2 Review Panel
Copyright © 1998-2001 The World Commission on Dams |
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