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Provinces' comments on dams report sought The Dawn, Pakistan - 18 November 2000 The Center has sought the comments of four provincial governments over the report issued by the World Commission on Dams (WCD), released all over the world the other day, to be able to discuss it comprehensively with the Commission.This was disclosed by the WCD's representative who briefed the newsmen here on Saturday at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute about WCD's report entitled "Dam and Development - a new framework for decision-making". "Yes, I met the concerned official of the federal government and he informed me, that the government will make its formal comments over this report after obtaining views from the provinces", the Commissions representative said when asked by a reporter. He also disclosed that the WCD had also heard the diverse views of all the concerned stockholders of the Kalabagh Dam Project during its consultation meeting in Colombo, before the finalization of the report on dams. However, despite repeated questions, he refused to comment on the Kalabagh dam saying "the Commission's mandate did not allow me to speak on the dams which are still in the planning stage. Of course, we heard the views of the people from Pakistan on the Kalabagh Dam", he said. Asked how can the Third World countries like Pakistan, which badly need new dams but have no financial resources construct dams, the WCD representative refused to answer saying the question was " politically motivated". Meanwhile, WCD has found that dams deliver significant development services in more than 140 countries. On a global scale hydropower dams account for 19 percent of the electricity generated and for an estimated 12 to 16 percent of global food production. As much as 12 percent of large dams supply domestic and industrial water, and large dams provide flood control services in more than 70 countries. The report said, the large dams display a higher degrees of variability in delivering predicted water and electricity services and related social benefits with a considerable portion falling short of physical and economic targets while other continue to generate benefits after 30 to 40 years. It said, large dams have led to the loss of forest and wildlife habitat and the loss of aquatic bio-diversity of upstream and downstream fisheries. The commission found that efforts to counter the eco-system impact of large dams had met with limited success. According to report, the negative social impact reflects a pervasive and systematic failure to assess and account for a range of potential negative impacts on displaced and resettled people as well downstream communities. Estimates suggests that some 40 to 80 million people have been displaced by the dams worldwide while the livelihood of many more living downstream were affected but not recognized. Mitigation, compensation or resettlement programs were often inadequate.
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