The Second World Water Forum & Ministerial Conference

Report from the WCD session

Session Name: Water and Dams - Challenging Times
Number of participants: approx. 300
Session Date: Monday, 20 March
Session Time: 09:00 - 12:30

Presentation

Vice Chair of the World Commission on Dams (WCD), Lakshmi Chand Jain, opened the special session and set the scene for the meeting by encouraging an open and constructive dialogue. A short video presentation outlined the genesis, mandate and work programme of the WCD. It brought out the intensity of feeling over impacts that dams have had on people's lives, whilst at the same time highlighting the real pressures to meet development needs. More information on the WCD can be found at http://www.dams.org. Following his opening remarks, Mr Jain introduced five presenters with contrasting backgrounds - government agency, indigenous peoples' group, private sector developer, advocacy group, and consultancy.

The lack of attention to rights of indigenous peoples and unfulfilled commitments were presented through first hand experience of Jacqueline Carino, a member of the Cordillera Peoples' Alliance in the Philippines. Highlighting the lack of compensation in the past for the Ibaloy people along the Agno river, Ms Carino pleaded that existing national and international agreements that safeguard the social and cultural heritage of indigenous communities are honoured in the case of implementing the San Roque dam.

Building on the experience of hydropower development in Norway, Kjell Heggelund highlighted that objectives of independent power producers go beyond profit. He stressed the importance of a long life and minimising delays -factors which require that social and environmental consequences are adequately considered and public acceptance is assured. Without public acceptance, he suggested that a developer might get a better return from treasury bonds.

Speaking as an advocate of reform in decision making on water resources development, Patrick McCully welcomed the open and inclusive process of the WCD. He drew on problems with past dams including under-estimated costs and over-estimated benefits. Arguing for transparency and accountability, he stressed the need for a wider debate on alternatives and ways to ensure local communities are better equipped to evaluate choices.

The final speaker, John Hennessy, focussed on the balance required to meet rapidly increasing needs for water and ensure effective participatory processes are used to resolve fundamental issues such as resettlement. He drew on the environmental checklist of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage as one mechanism to avoid repeating problems of the past.

Discussion

Three Commissioners of the World Commission on Water were invited to make comments and draw on their experience from the World Water Vision. Peter Rogers raised the need for monitoring and evaluation targeted at improving management decisions, adapting operation to changing contexts, and improving future decision making.

Speaking from experience as a minister, Yolanda Kakabadse distinguished between two levels of the debate, the technical and the political. She categorised resettlement and the assessment of alternatives as highly political requiring broad ranging participation of all affected groups. On the subject of resettlement, Chair of the World Commission on Water, Ismail Serageldin, stressed that those affected by projects should be part of the development process and not "pauperised in the name of development".

Comments and discussion from the floor provided a wealth of diverse experience highly relevant to the issues being examined by the Commission. Distributional aspects were captured in the question "who swallows the pill and who gets well?". Those who suffered injustices of the past called for "healing of the wounds" and ways through which credibility could be regained by dealing sensitively with the past.

Social and environmental considerations dominated the discussion pointing to a transition from mitigation of negative impacts to a more proactive approach of reducing or avoiding such impacts. There was a feeling that the importance of assessing alternatives had to rise but also that the process be broadened to include those directly affected. Recognition that consumption patterns should reflect local natural resource limitations gave rise to calls for more exhaustive attention to demand management prior to decisions being taken on new projects.

A challenge was laid down to opponents of dams to identify alternatives in situations where surface water and groundwater cannot cope with burgeoning urban expansion and where alternative fuels for electricity generation require high price imports. On irrigation, the wider benefits to communities and rural development achievements were highlighted.

Other issues raised related to good governance, improved decision making, sustainability, accountability and fulfilling commitments.

Conclusion

Three main points emerged from the session. Firstly, the constructive way in which individuals in the debate came together was encouraging. The session reinforced the hope that a new way forward can be found beyond the current paralysis in decision making. Secondly the importance of resettlement as a development activity was stressed. Thirdly, many of the interventions confirmed the need for more openness and creativity in decision making, in particular introduction of a level playing field for the assessment of alternatives.

Actions

Mr Jain closed the session commenting on the rich harvest of comments in the session. He shared personal experiences that highlighted the need for a new balance between demand and supply.

The World Commission on Dams is now entering its final phase of synthesis and developing recommendations. The views expressed at the session will be incorporated into the general body of material submitted to the WCD. The Commission's final report will be launched in mid-November 2000 and followed by regional dissemination activities.