Ripple Effects:
Brazil

Towards a National Commission?

For during that crucial April 1997 Gland meeting, the Sao-Paulo-based Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB) was one who advocated creation of what became the WCD.

Since then, MAB, a national network of dam-affected peoples, has spread the word of the WCD and amplified the repercussions of its work.

Sadi Baron addresses a meeting of MAB

"We brought the debate to the affected Brazilian population and tried to involve NGOs and civil society," said Sadi Baron, MAB's national secretary and representative on the WCD Forum. Baron described taking part in an official hearing with Brazil's representatives from mining and energy industries, environmentalists, and the national electric energy agency, informing them of the WCD's work and urging the government to participate in the process.

Then MAB went one step further.

It succeeded in initiating a public hearing concerning large dams before the Commission for consumer protection, the environment and minorities of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies.

"On an occasion in the presence of the media, governmental and parliamentary representatives, the MAB proposed the creation of a Brazilian Commission on Dams, which would be charged with carrying out a national process similar to that of the World Commission on Dams."

MAB was quick to note that in calling for a national version of the WCD it was not endorsing the Final Report, the work, or even the evidence that has emerged since WCD was created. And, to be sure, even its proposal has not yet become operational.

The Tucuruí Dam, Brazil

But Brazilians have been receptive to it, and did find the WCD process itself a useful forum for airing grievances. "The commitment of MAB with the process of the WCD," said Baron, "was manifested at the Latin American Public Consultation in Sao Paulo, with a massive presence of adversely affected people from different areas of the country."

Few participants of the WCD Second Regional Consultation in Sao Paulo can forget that presence, or the outcome. Nearly 1000 angry people marched on the meeting. Rather than summon police, they were welcomed inside, their points listened to, and documented.

The WCD also conducted one of its case studies of the Tucurui dam in the Amazon Basin. The process not only yielded important information for the Commission, but also contributed to a new series of developments between ElectroBrasil, the national utility and local communities concerning a proposed phase II expansion of the dam.

When the WCD ends November 16, perhaps a Brazilian Commission on Dams may be prepared to bridge the gap between global and local dialogue.