[Newsletter Contents]

Message from the Chair
What Next?

Four months ago the WCD Report was launched. My fellow Commissioners and I have spent recent weeks studying the responses to Dams and Development. As one observer noted: Not since Brundtland has a global report catalysed such an engaged and worldwide review and debate.

More than 50 events on the Report have already been organised; over 5,000 copies sold; more than 2,000 downloads of the Report from our website; several important awards received.

So where do we go from here?

Our report offers a framework for decision-making ­ not a decision.

Universal endorsement often only comes to bland undertakings, and I am proud to say that we have passed the test of "harmonious irrelevance" with flying colours ­ as the lively and intense response to the Report clearly illustrates.

Despite talk of a negative or bleak tone, nowhere in the Report will you read "large dams are bad." Or "good." Large dams simply are. The Report shows how, where, when and why certain aspects of those dams have performed for better or for worse and how we can improve decisions to develop resources for all.

The Report does not call for a moratorium. Dams should be judged on a case by case basis, and pass or fail according to the criteria and guidelines societies set for them.

To that end, our guidelines offer guidance ­ not a regulatory framework. They are not laws to be obeyed rigidly. They are guidelines, with a small "g," that illustrate best practice and show all nations how they can move forward. But guide us they should, as we cannot ignore the lessons of the past and because they can best reduce the risks and costs for all parties involved.

Some blame the messenger for a decline in dam construction ­ a situation it did not create. Others invest the messenger with powers to stop or govern dam decisions ­ a mandate it did not have or seek.

What is the WCD message? That in response to growing development needs, dams remain one important option, but to turn that option into an ideological crusade ­ by either side and for whatever reason ­ would not only fail, but preempt whole societies from making an informed choice, which is their sovereign and human right.

We, the former Commission, cannot and do not make that informed choice. You can, and I hope you will.

The Third and Final Forum meeting in Cape Town took a remarkable decision, namely to move forward together by building on the work of the Commission. As Chair of the WCD, I could not have thought of a better ending.

Professor Kader Asmal

Chair of the WCD