12 March 1999
A "Meeting of Opposites" on Water Conflicts and Their Resolution
Prague, Czech Republic March 25-26 1999

If there is one essential resource which will define relations between states and people in the XXI century, it is water. Population growth and climate change are exacerbating the conflicting claims to water needed to produce food and energy. The World Meteorological Organization estimates that by 2025, almost one billion people may be living in countries with moderate to severe water shortages -- a figure that could double again by 2050.

Dams are a central, flashpoint issue in the sustainable management of our finite water resources. They provide hydropower to fuel economic growth, irrigation for food security, and flood management. But these benefits come at certain costs, in human, environmental and economic terms. The adversarial debate over dams illustrates the tensions both between nations (over shared waterways) and within nations (as environmentalists, communities displaced by dams and other affected people battle with government, utilities and agricultural interests.)

The World Commission on Dams has been charged with moving the debate beyond rancour and into the development of internationally-acceptable policies on dams and their alternatives. As part of its global programme, the Commission is hosting the first meeting of its 48-member Forum in Prague, Czech Republic, March 25-26. The event will be at the Hotel Movenpick.

Like the Commission itself, the Forum is an innovation in global public policy-making and brings together a broad spectrum of pro- and anti-dam interests. These include utilities and indigenous people, economists and social activists, environmentalists and engineers, as well as lending institutions and aid agencies which often are approached to fund dams.

While Thursday 25 March is a closed session, Friday 26 March is an open session, starting with a panel discussion on a key international waterway, the Danube. The largest river in Central Europe, the Danube and its basin include 17 countries and its waters are used by 80 million people. Between 1950-1980, 69 dams were built along the Danube.

The Danube offers vital lessons in:

• Conflict and cooperation between nations. Individual countries have sought to dam and canalise Danube waters despite opposition from their neighbors. In recent years, however, a degree of cross-border consensus on some issues has been achieved through Danube treaties. In the case of the Gabcikova dam, Slovakia and Hungary agreed to submit their dispute to the International Court of Justice.


• Conflict and cooperation within nations. Activists have fought government to preserve communities, flora and fauna affected by engineering works on the river. Many of the adversaries recently have joined together in regional initiatives to seek progress on social and environmental issues.

On Friday 26 March, Richard Falk, the Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice at Princeton University, will give a keynote address on conflicting rights to water (e.g. an indigenous community's right to remain on ancestral land, versus the state's right to flood that land for a hydro dam to fuel national economic growth .)

Further on the question of conflicting rights to water resources, journalists may also wish to interview WCD Chairperson Professor Kader Asmal, who is also South Africa's Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry. Professor Asmal's new water bill, considered a world leader, advances the rights of South Africa's many water-deprived citizens vis-à-vis the more established interests of industry and agriculture. The legislation puts into action South Africa's new constitutional provisions enshrining the concept of sustainable development.