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Go Slow On Big Dams, Say Activists

Inter Press Service (IPS) - 26 November 2000

Activists campaigning against big dams in South-east Asia are pressing multilateral lenders not to fund these projects till authorities comply with guidelines laid down by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) in its report released last week.

They said a violent attack on Thai villagers protesting against one of the region's biggest dams, a few days after the WCD report's global launch, shows that those building big dams have scant respect for human rights. The villagers were protesting against the Pak Mun dam, one of eight large dams investigated by the WCD. ''The WCD report vindicates what we have long argued -- that the cost of dam projects is simply too high for the local communities who bear the brunt of this development. Here in Thailand, communities affected by dam projects have been fighting for years for just compensa-tion, '' Chainarong Sretthachau of the South-east Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN) told reporters Friday.

Doi Toshiyuki of the Japan-based Fukuoka NGO Forum on the Asian Development Bank (AsDB) said his group will urge the Asian bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation to ''place a morato-rium on funding dams until they have adopted the WCD guide-lines, and review all ongoing projects in the light of the new recommendations.''The activists, who represented 54 anti-dam and people's groups from 12 Asia-Pacific nations, were speak-ing to reporters after the official launch of the WCD report here earlier in the day.

According to the anti-dam groups, the recommendations of the WCD report were ''very general'' and could have been more specific. ''But we should accept this report,'' said Chainarong. The anti-dam coalition Rivers Watch East And South-east Asia(RWESA) said it ''welcomed'' the report, but added it ''does not go far enough in its recommendations.'' ''The report shows the devastating impacts of dam projects on communities and the environment, and also shows how dams have failed to deliver their projected benefits,'' said RWESA in a press statement. Thailand's Pak Mun Dam, the Three Gorges Dam in China, the San Roque Dam in the Philippines, the Ta Sang Dam in Burma and the Bakun Dam in Malaysia have violated WCD guidelines, said the activists. In preparing its report, the commission brought together supporters and critics of big dams from across the world, including engineers, environmentalists, government of-ficials, multilateral lenders and people affected by such projects. ''The WCD found that the (Pak Mun) dam failed to meet its projected benefits and has had substantial impacts on fisheries,'' said the South-east Asian anti-dam groups.

They cited findings in the WCD investigation of the dam that the reservoir had reduced fish catch in the river by between 60 to 80 percent, causing an estimated annual economic loss of 1.4 million U.S. dollars to the local fishing community. ''If all the benefits and costs were adequately assessed, it is unlikely that the project would have been built,'' the anti-dam groups quoted the WCD report as saying. They also slammed the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), which is building the dam, for using strong-arm tactics against locals protesting against the project. On Nov. 19, villagers camping along the dam to show their protest were attacked by a mob of 200 people who tore down their settlement and injured several protestors. People's groups in Thailand have accused EGAT of instigating the attack. ''Such a cruel, barbaric and inhuman undertaking reflects EGAT's rejection of the WCD's recom-mendations, which have direct implications for the Pak Mun Dam,'' said the South-east Asian anti-dam groups. They also criticised Burma's three billion-dollar Ta Sang Dam on the Salween River as an ''extreme case'' of violation of the WCD guideline that people affected by big dams must have a say in making decisions about such projects.

''No such exercise is possible, or if undertaken, can be meaningful, due to the pervasive climate of fear created by the Burmese military's gross oppression of the affected population,''they said. The 200 metre-high San Roque Dam, being built in Luzon island in the Philippines, will ''permanently damage'' the Agno River, worshipped by the local indigenous Ibaloi commu-nity, ''thereby destroying the lives and livelihoods of the Ibaloi'', said the anti-dam groups. In Malaysia, the South-east Asian economic crisis of 1997 forced the government to considerably downsize its Bakun hydroelectric project, located in Sarawak in the eastern part of the country. But 9,000 indigenous people from the Kayan, Kenyah, Lahanan, Ukit and Penan ethnic groups were evicted to make way for the dam on the Balui River.

China's 185 metre-high Three Gorges Dam is to be the world's largest dam, stretching for more than two kilometres across the river and having a 600 km-long reservoir that would displace an estimated 1.9 million people. Anti-dam campaigners allege ''widespread mismanagement'' in the project resettlement programme. Though the WCD stipulates ''a clear agreement with the affected people on the sequence and stages of resettle-ment'', those being displaced by the Chinese dam ''have had no say in the process,'' they pointed out. According to Jeremy Bird, senior advisor to the WCD who was in Bangkok for the report's launch, big dams have produced considerable benefit but ''these have come at a high price''. ''We have learnt lessons from the past and with hindsight, we can say that these costs could have been avoided,'' he told IPS.

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