WCD News

WCD Chair takes centre stage at Stockholm Water Symposium:

Peripatetic WCD Chair Kader Asmal dominated the 10^th Annual Stockholm Water Symposium, appearing and speaking almost everywhere, every day during the conference in Sweden's capital city.

Asmal won this year's prestigious Water Prize, for overhauling water supply and use from apartheid-era favouritism to a policy of "some water, for all, forever." A synopsis of his schedule August 14-17:

Monday: address the opening session with a Laureate Lecture on "Water is the Catalyst for Peace" which challenges conventional wisdom that water scarcity leads to "water wars."

Tuesday: give opening address to the Royal Technical Institute of Technology on "New Perspectives in Water Resources Management - Challenges in Research and Education." Demonstrated how South Africa is spearheading overhaul of water management to include human rights, social justice and environmental sustainability and practice.

Speak at Junior Water Prize that night.

Wednesday: Chair special session offering early insights for global water supply experts on the work process and experience of the World Commission on Dams. Joined by John Briscoe, Senior Water Advisor to the World Bank; Asit Biswas, President, Third World Centre for Water Management, Mexico City; and Goran Ek, International Secretary, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.

Then, that night, deliver the Laureate's presentation to Water Prize Laureates on "The Neutralising Force of Water," linking the scientific and engineering properties of water in a nexus with political and social rules on water as well.

Thursday: In a formal ceremony receive the 2000 Stockholm Water Prize from their majesties the King and Queen of Sweden.

Click here to read Kader Asmal's laureate lecture

Goldemberg awarded The Volvo Environment Prize:

Professor José Goldemberg, one of twelve members of the World Commission on Dams, was awarded The Volvo Environment Prize for 2000, making him the third WCD Commissioner recognised by global institutions for his work on sustainable development in recent months.

Goldemberg won the prize jointly with Dr. Thomas B. Johansson (Sweden), Professor Amulya K. N. Reddy (India) and Dr. Robert H. William (USA).

Goldemberg, now a professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, was the chairman and CEO of the Energy Company of the State of São Paulo. He has served as Rector of his University and Secretary of Science and Technology for the Federal Government of Brazil and Minister of Education. He currently serves in senior capacities with the International Energy Initiative and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In awarding, the Volvo Environment Prize noted that: "Each of them has wide knowledge of the problem and how it affects their individual regions of the world. But they realised that the energy issue could not be resolved by individual efforts. It is global problem. Among other points, they showed that if the developing countries make the same mistakes as the industrialised countries in the energy exploitation area, this would lead to enormous environmental problems. They reasoned that it would be preferable to aim for a technological gain by missing out the intermediate stage and focusing directly on new technology.

The Prize will be awarded to the winners at a special ceremony in Sweden in October this year.
www.environment-prize.com

About TIME…

In May, Commissioner Medha Patkar, head of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada River) was recognised as an activist 'Hero of the Planet' in a special issue of Time Magazine for her work in the Narmada Valley of India.

Hanover Dialogue on Dams:

The first World EXPO ever held in Germany chose the relationship between "Humankind - Nature - Technology" as its main theme and put itself in line with the Agenda 21 process initiated in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

One of the integral parts of the EXPO was the "Global Dialogue EXPO 2000" programme of nine three-day workshop sessions. Their objective: to allow for deeper and more comprehensive reflection on the challenging issues related to sustainable development. The WCD was selected as a 'Global Showcase' to present its approach to conducting global public policy dialogue on dams. WCD Secretary General, Achim Steiner, and WCD Commissioner Joji Carino, both participated in different events at the EXPO on "Social Innovations and New Coalitions".

On 1-2 July 2000, Joji Carino represented the Commission in the session "Responsible Governance of Natural Resources," and took the lessons and messages of this workshop to a concluding television talk show on "Putting Vision into Action."

In her presentation at the first session Carino reported on the WCD work programme highlighting opportunities that link community actions and international policy processes compared with other processes on water, forestry or fisheries. "The workshop was primarily informative, with people wanting to know more about who we were and what we did," said Carino. "As there were a number of individual groups who had not heard about the Commission they were interested to hear of our approach. The WCD stood for a different kind of public policy development; this made it possible for participants to think of setting up similar commissions on, for example fisheries."

On July 25-27 2000, 300 researchers, practitioners and organisations, leading figures from politics and business, met for a special event: "The Global Dialogue on Fighting Poverty - Social Innovations." Reinhold Loehberg and Chittaroopa Palit representing Siemens and the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) - both members of the WCD Forum - together with Achim Steiner, delivered a joint presentation on the expectations and lessons learnt in the WCD process to date.