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Contents
EditorialWhy a World Commission on Dams? For those who did not follow its genesis the WCD may be a surprising initiative. More often than not the establishment of 'yet another commission' may be greeted with skepticism. Unlike many other Commissions, the World Commission on Dams had to survive its 'baptism of fire' before it was even launched. Its history reflects the fractious nature of the debate on the successes and failures of dams. Few would have believed that the antagonisms surrounding the issue of dams could have allowed people from all sides of the debate to work together over 8 months to jointly establish an independent Commission. The process of negotiation facilitated by the IUCN - World Conservation Union and the World Bank in late 1997 enabled representation from governments, the private sector, NGOs, affected peoples organisation and multilaterals to work together for the first time. This 'reference group', as it came to be know, set a precedent for a new type of Commission process - bottom up rather than top down! The WCD moves beyond the traditional boundaries separating public sector, private sector and civil society. Its membership - carefully balanced to avoid any bias for or against dams - reflects the assumption that global public policy issues can no longer be addressed without the active participation of all three sectors. During the initial months the Commission concentrated on developing a consensus on objectives, strategy and the approach to implementing the work program. As the WCD prepares for its third meeting in Sri Lanka in mid - December it has successfully completed its establishment phase. This, the first edition of a quarterly newsletter together with the relaunched web site signal the start of an intensive dialogue with all stakeholders and interests groups. The WCD work programme is an open invitation to all to interact with the Commission over the next 18 months. Achim Steiner
Established through a process involving representatives from all perspectives of the debate, the WCD sets a new precedent for addressing development and resource management conflicts at an international level. It recognises that such conflict resolution can no longer be addressed by governments alone, but must include civil society and the private sector. Its main task is to address a central issue of controversy in the global debate on sustainable development. The commission believes that the lessons learnt from the success - and failures - of dams can provide rare insight into what can be done to address crucial issues such as economic growth, social equity, environmental conservation and public participation. With at least one billion people having no access to adequate water for daily consumption, let alone to meet development aspirations, the need for proper water resource planning and consideration of dams and alternatives cannot be over-emphasised. In recent years the building of any dam has rarely escaped controversy. Often it has turned into a conflict of interest between local communities and the dam builders with accusations that calls to "Let every voice count" in the planning and construction have gone unheeded. Issues of controversy include:
It is against this background that the WCD's mandate was hammered out at a workshop organised by the IUCN -The World Conservation Union and the World Bank in Gland, Switzerland, in 1997. A reference group composed of, among others, representatives of governments, civil society, dam affected communities and the private sector, proposed that the WCD compile a report by June 2000 that:
To achieve these objectives, the WCD will:
Given the time constraints and mandate of the WCD, its approach to studying the issues will focus on understanding the knowledge available on dams and the varying perspectives of different groups. The Commission's approach will thus draw on five principal sources; Expertise of Commission members and Secretariat staff (for example: existing data and information to be collected, reviewed and synthesised). Consultation with interest groups (e.g.: hearings, workshops, meetings ). The WCD's final report will provide decision makers and interest groups with an assessment of dams and their alternatives, as well as key elements of a more effective decision support system composed of tools, methodologies and procedures to assess various socio-economic, managerial and technical alternatives and a set of criteria and guidelines to address the dams option within the broader context of sustainable management of water and energy resources. The following are some of the key themes to be addressed as part of the thematic reviews in the WCD Work Programme.
Kader Asmal:That Dam ManBy John CarlinIf South Africa were a normal country Kader Asmal's transformation, in the autumn of his years, from law professor at Trinity College, Dublin, to minister of water in the government of Nelson Mandela might raise a puzzled eyebrow or two. But nothing comes as a surprise these days in South Africa, a land of opportunity so whimsically bountiful that, in the blink of an eye, a prisoner becomes a president, trade union leaders become captains of industry and communists assume the financial reins of an economy rigorously free market in its orientation. Professor Asmal, in whom the cultural influence of Ireland blends cheerfully with the genetic heritage of the East, has taken with remarkable gusto to the portfolio he took on four years ago, when the African National Congress took power following South Africa's first democratic elections. Even the government's worst detractors will concede that if there is one ministry that has delivered on its electoral promises, and done so with efficiency and admirable toil, it is Water Affairs and Forestry. Recognition of Professor Asmal's impressive achievement in making the transition from whisky aficionado to water authority has extended beyond South Africa's borders, notably in his selection this year as chairman of the newly formed World Commission on Dams. For a man recently diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, the very notion of contemplating so global an addition to his ministerial burdens (the world has 40,000 large dams) would seem a trifle over-ambitious. Yet in an interview at his office in Pretoria, Professor Asmal, whose energy and optimism are matched only by his famed passion for justice and human rights, addressed himself to the task of the WCD with typically boyish vigour. "Our work is for two years," Professor Asmal said. "After that our function is finished, our commission expires. It's the first time ever that such a thing has been done. We're working hard. Nothing concentrates the mind as the imminence of death and nothing concentrates our minds like imminence of expiry." What will the Commission's work actually consist of? In essence, he explained, it is to come up with a report that will serve as the international benchmark, the standard, for all parties concerned in one way or another with the building -- or indeed the closure of -- dams. "Our report will be a referential point for international institutions, from governments, private bankers and the World Bank to environmental organisations and affected people, i.e. communities whose lives are shaped to a some degree by living in the vicinity of dams." In an important sense, the purpose of the report will be "to distill", as Professor Asmal put it, the views and interests submitted to the Commission in the course of the next 18 months (the Commission ends its work in June 2000) in such a way as to help ensure that governments will be held fully accountable for all actions they take relating to dams. "Often these projects are an Ozymandias thing," Professor Asmal said, quoting Shelley. "'Look on my works ye mighty and despair'. They have been seen as national symbols from Nehru to Roosevelt. Dams are seen as an espresso of mighty capacity. Every minister and president has wanted to be identified with such projects. They are great macho symbols, because they are very visible, because you are taming nature. You're taming the wilderness, you're conquering nature. Dam construction obeys a sort of primeval instinct, really." It is to restrain that macho instinct, or rather to impose upon it a logical and an equitable set of rules under the principle of viable and sustainable development, that the Commission has been established. "The last few years have seen conflicts between governments on the one hand and environmentalist groups and affected people on the other," Professor Asmal said, identifying the areas where the Commission's mediation would be helpful. "Such conflicts have sometimes resulted in violence, occupation and alienation. In other cases there have been attacks on governments when projects have been cancelled. Also there are transnational aspects to dam building, the association between financial bodies, the World Bank and governments. So the Commission has been set up as a rather unique project whereby the interest groups on all sides come together and say, 'Look, is it possible to have agreed rules for the construction, maintenance and closure of dams? Is it possible to remove the aggravation and the irritation?' Because there is no predictability at the moment. If a government decides to have a project like this, the debate generated by the opposition could last nine years before any decision is taken, and then the building takes another eight or nine years, so the original assumption is lost in that 18 years period. It is to try and avoid such confusion and delay that the Commission has been set up. That is why the Commission represents, through its dozen international members, all the interests involved, from the bankers to associate financiers, to dam builders and engineers to representative affected peoples groups and those who want to look at whether there are alternatives to dams, alternatives to hydropower." "Are there feasible alternatives? Is dams value for money? We're going to be posing all the questions and in the answers we will be taking a unified approach, categorically not responding to the interests of any pressure group and recognising always the need to balance the environmental, social and ecological concerns against the increasing demands of economic development. Don't forget that the construction of a dam is often the largest investment a country will ever make, certainly in the smaller countries like South Africa." The urgency to act is all the greater today, Professor Asmal said, because of what he calls the greater "fascination" with the question of water. "Water, of course, is always with us. But its economic value has not been fully appreciated until now. In India, I learnt the other day, rural people don't pay for water. In Ireland a government fell when it considered charging rates for water. But what some people fail to take into account is that whereas water itself is a natural resource, some might say possessing a mystical quality even, its transport and maintenance and purification does not come free. It is expensive." The demand for water, the pressure on governments to deliver, grows as the world economy grows. "The poor consume only 35 to 40 litres per person a day. Middle class people use 350 to 400 litres -- and that is all over the world, in South Africa, in Asia, in Europe." There is a multinational dimension to the problem, Professor Asmal said, all the more so "as the enormous importance of water is now recognised". For example, plans afoot now in Turkey to build new dams could cause problems for downstream countries. "Tension between states is a possibility. In broad terms there are a dozen situations in the world where multinational interests are at play. Also there are tensions within nations, between states -- as in India where some states don't want the construction of a dam, other states very much want it. To avoid clashes with countries and between countries is a large part of the Commission's study. Always, our purpose will be to see how countries can reconcile differences. We will then come up with a set of rules valuable to all parties and sustainable positions that states can invoke and say, 'We are meeting the criteria laid down by the World Commission on Dams'."
ORANGE RIVER PILOT STUDYReview of the performance and development effectiveness of Gariep and Vanderkloof dams, Orange River, South AfricaAs part of the 2-year mandate of the World Commission on Dams, a review of the development effectiveness of large dams in the world is to be undertaken. Before launching the worldwide case studies program for up to 15 focal dams in the context of national and trans-national river basins, an initial pilot study on the Orange River was selected to test the concepts, methods, data collection procedures and means of interaction with the stakeholders. The experience with the pilot exercise will be used to formulate the terms of reference for the worldwide case studies; and secondly, to provide a model or example report to guide the other in country teams preparing the other case studies. The Orange River ProjectThe Orange River Project was first authorised by the South African Government in a White Paper of 1962-63. The project was rapidly approved and South Africa financed the Orange River Project from the national budget during the 1960s and 1970s primarily through foreign exchange earnings from gold exports. The central objectives of the Gariep and Vanderkloof dams were to store and divert water to promote and stablilise irrigation along the Orange River and in the Eastern Cape. Secondary objectives included supply of water to urban centres and industries in the southeast, reduction of severe flood damage and electricity generation.
Review methodology
For the case studies the concept of "development effectiveness" is taken in the broader sense. This includes the relevance and appropriateness of large dams as a response to the needs that motivated their construction (e.g. irrigation, power, flood management, water supply). It further comprises the projected versus actual services and benefits, the costs associated with results obtained, the distribution of gains and losses among groups, and the general conditions under which they were built and are operated. This latter aspect relates to decision-making and consultative processes, and to the ex-post validity of the key assumptions upon which dam projects were originally developed. At the basin level the WCD will not be conducting an evaluation of the present need for, nor the value of, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. But it will try to examine the effects of the Orange River Project on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project will also evaluate the changing institutional framework for decision-making by comparing the laws, policies, criteria and guidelines that existed at the time of that the Gariep and Van der Kloof Dams were built with the governance structures that have shaped the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. This will be a test of whether it is feasible for the WCD to conduct similar cross-temporal analyses of decision-making process comparing focal dams with the latest dam building process in its other case studies around the world. Current status of the reviewThe WCD has openness, transparency and participation as some of its guiding principles. The Orange River review is no exception to this and provides an opportunity for sharing the approach and methodology with interested groups. The WCD secretariat has therefore drafted a scoping paper (available on the web site) that was submitted to a meeting of stakeholders and experts on 17 November 1998 to review the proposed approach, ensure that all divergent views are brought into the process, and that the key issues surrounding the benefits and impacts of these dams be included in the review. More information on how you can contribute is available on the Orange River section of the website or through WCD Secretariat. During December and January a study team composed of Secretariat staff and South African consultants will undertake the pilot study, reporting back to a stakeholder meeting in February 1999.
It's one thing to talk about creating a World Commission on Dams. It's quite another for the polar-opposite players in the dams debate to ante up the millions of dollars necessary for this co-operative venture which none of them, individually, can control. Yet in just five months the Commission has received firm pledges covering 55 per cent of the $9.8 million necessary for it to carry out its multifaceted mandate. "That's an unusually quick response from donors who often take far longer to make funding decisions," said WCD Secretary-General Achim Steiner. Most importantly, the money has come from a wide cross-section of actors in the debate, thus ensuring the Commission's independence. Whether the WCD will be able to fulfil its complex, global mandate by the June 2000 deadline will depend on pledges from the rest of the diverse community involved in the dams issue.
The funds pledged thus far come from NGOs, the private sector, governments of countries both South and North, and multilateral agencies. The size of each contribution is in keeping with the old adage, "From each according to its means", and range from $800,000 from the World Bank, which co-founded the WCD along with the IUCN, to $2,000 from the US National Wildlife Federation. A number of governments led by Norway with US$800,000 have so far committed a total of $3.5 million. They include China, Japan, Germany, South Africa, United Kingdom, Denmark, Switzerland and Sweden. Corporate donations so far total $893,000, led by $200,000 from engineering giant ABB as well as Hydro Quebec a major utility with US$170,000. Substantial commitments have been received from Siemens, Skanska, Atlas Copco and Enron as well as consultancy firms such as Harza Engineering, which assisted the WCD with its corporate fundraising efforts. Commitments have also been made from the non-governmental sector. Thus far, the U.S.-based MOTT Foundation, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the US National Wildlife Federation have pledged a total of $37,000. Regardless of the size of each donation, the commission's make-up remains carefully balanced between the various interests involved in the dams question. "The WCD is a unique endeavour encompassing the various parties to a very polarised debate," said Commission Chairman Professor Asmal. "Their willingness to commit funds with 'no strings attached' has been central to the notion of a multi-stakeholder process. We hope others will feel encouraged to follow suit". The World Commission on Dams aims to raise the remaining US$4,0 million by mid 1999.
Copyright © 1998-2001 The World Commission on Dams |
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