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Don't damn dams out of hand

by Martin Wieland , Bangkok Post, Thailand - 29 March 2001

Dams, like any large capital works, have a negative impact on their surroundings. But this does not mean we should stop building dams altogether, and certainly not if their benefits outweigh the trouble they cause.

Martin Wieland in Dietikon, Switzerland

The Bangkok Post of March 15 featured a photograph of a banner with anti-dam slogans written in different languages hanging from a bridge over the Chao Phraya river. It is interesting to note how much press attention anti-dam actions receive. World Anti-Dam Day on March 14 may just be the invention of small groups of dam opponents trying to draw public attention and block future dam projects.

These actions are directed unintentionally at developing countries, as water resources development in the West has reached saturation point. In developing countries there is a growing need for clean water for household consumption, industry and especially for irrigation. There is also a growing need for sustainable and environmentally friendly sources of energy, which dams can provide. Dams also have contributed significantly to flood protection all over the world.

Properly planned and implemented dams can provide all these benefits over very long periods of time.

Dams have been around for over 2,000 years. People are used to living with dams and consider them as offering benefits, otherwise this technology would have been abandoned long ago.

Dams and access to clean water and energy are still key elements in the development of most countries. For poor regions, where most of the rainfall occurs during a short rainy season, the agricultural output and the well-being of the rural population will continue to depend on the availability of water.

What are the alternatives to dams? The answer is certainly not "no dams".

Why are so many people from the dry northeast of Thailand migrating voluntarily to Bangkok? Are there too many dams with a negative impact? We know that dams contribute only very marginally to the migration of poor rural people. To give the rural people a better way of life other solutions than "no dams" are needed. We urgently need dams.

The main concerns of the dam opponents are related to environmental and socio-economic impact mitigation. These also are serious concerns for dam developers and owners.

Nobody in the dam community is interested in intentionally destroying the environment or in disregarding the interests of people living in a reservoir area, as one would assume when reading the anti-dam slogans. What is different is the approach to these concerns. The anti-dam groups are essentially against new dam projects, and this will mainly affect the developing countries.

Because of the growing opposition to some dam projects, the World Commission on Dams was formed in 1997 to look into the main concerns of large dam projects.

At the last commission forum in Cape Town at the end of last month, the World Bank, one of the main financial supporters of the World Commission on Dams, did not endorse the final report, which would have greatly reduced the World Bank's involvement in new dam projects.

If adopted by governments, the recommendations in the final report would be very far reaching. The approval process for new dam projects would be exhaustive, time-consuming, expensive and risky for developers, as there is no guarantee that a project will be approved and that the initial investments for getting approval can be recovered.

The complicated approval, evaluation and monitoring mechanisms recommended in the World Commission on Dams report would discourage any developers of future dam projects and would lead to a virtual stop of dam construction. The recommendations may also have an impact on the political systems of different countries as a veto right is recommended for the (underprivileged) people affected by new dam projects.

India and China, the two most populous countries and with the highest undeveloped hydropower potential although planning to develop their water resources, have vigorously opposed any anti-development policies supported by anti-dam interest groups.

If treated like dams, other infrastructure development projects could also no longer be implemented in time and at reasonable cost.

It is obvious that any large infrastructure project has a negative impact on the environment and some people will be affected in the densely populated countries of Asia. But at the same time, we must recognise that such projects bring benefits to other people.

It is in the interest of countries to only develop projects where the number of people who benefit outnumber those who suffer a negative impact.

The people affected by a large infrastructure project are not to be considered automatically as losers. Everybody's life is affected by unforeseen decisions and circumstances. Usually, this leads to new opportunities and most people do not want to return to the past once they get used to their new environment.

The objectives of the anti-dam proponents are idealistic and utopian and have little to do with the socio-economic development of a country. The immaterial values they are trying to protect are viewed very differently by different stakeholders and these values also change with time.

As protection of the environment and socio-economic effects can hardly be expressed in monetary units, a comparison with the direct economic benefits of a project is very difficult.

The presumption that the environmental and socio-economic concerns of dam opponents are more important than the far-reaching economic benefits of well-designed dams has no rational basis.

An anti-dam policy and systematic opposition to new dam projects are the wrong answers to the development needs of poor countries as water shortage will be one of their main problems in the near future.

Martin Wieland is a former faculty member (and division chairman) with the Division of Structural Engineering and Construction at the Asian Institute of Technology. He is presentlychairman of the Committee onSeismic Aspects of Dam Design of the International Commission on Large Dams. He has been involved in several large dam projects in Asia and Europe.

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