8 December 1999
WCD hosts Cairo meeting on Large Dams in Africa/Middle East

Cape Town/Cairo, 8 Dec. 1999 -- For the first time in Africa and the Middle East, governments, companies, NGOs, academics, and utilities involved in the debate over large dams are meeting to discuss the economic, social, and environmental impacts of dams. The World Commission on Dams is holding its Africa/Middle East Regional Consultation on Dams in Cairo, Egypt 8-9 December with participation by interested parties from 28 countries across the two regions.

Those attending the meeting are debating the positive and negative impacts of dams in the Africa/Middle East region. The Cairo meeting is one of a series of regional consultations that will help the WCD prepare its final report, to be issued by mid-2000.

The consultation opened with statements by Professor Kader Asmal, Chair of the WCD, and Mr. Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme which is supporting this WCD consultation as part of a broader partnership on a range of issues of mutual interest. Mr. Mahmoud Abu Zeid, Egypt's Minister of Public Works and Water Resources, also addressed the meeting.

"It is chiefly through dams that humankind has manipulated water resources to suit its own needs and ends," said Professor Asmal, currently South Africa's Minister of Education and, from 1994-June 1999, Water Affairs and Forestry Minister in Nelson Mandela's government. "Water is one of the most vital elements for sustainable development. And the debate over large dams has come to encompass all the issues at the heart of the unrealised dream of achieving sustainable development. On the one hand large dams have fuelled agricultural and industrial growth, whilst on the other hand this has often been at a cost to the environment, to taxpayers, to communities displaced by dams."

Minister Abu Zeid noted that large dams have supplied irrigation, power generation, urban and industrial water supply, flood management and control. However, he said, "the fact that many of the indirect and direct costs of dam constuction were often under-estimated has resulted in some level of opposition to dam construction. There have been concerns that insufficient consideration as to who ultimately benefits and who ultimately pays for dams have gone into the decision-making process."

Mr. Toepfer noted the efforts by the World Commission on Dams to assess not only experience and possibilities of using dams as a development tool, but other options as well, including demand management that could reduce the need for new dams. He noted estimates that in African cities, "up to 40 per cent of water is lost through leakages" in water pipes. "Before we discuss the construction of dams, I believe the first need is to single out where we can decrease demand through more efficient use of existing supply."

An important debate
Of the estimated 800 000 dams around the world, approximately 45 000 are considered large (over 15 meters in height). Another 1 600 large dams are under construction worldwide in an industry whose annual turnover is estimated at $50 billion or more. From 1970 to 1979, 5 415 dams were built worldwide, doubling the number constructed in the 1950s. But the pace of dam building has fallen dramatically since the mid-1980s, due to concerns about the financial, social, and environmental impacts of dams, among other reasons.

In the Middle East there are at least 793 large dams whose main purpose is irrigation, followed by flood control; in this region Turkey has the most reservoirs (625), followed by Iran (66), Syria (41), and Saudi Arabia (38).In the African region there are at least 1 272 large dams, whose main purpose is irrigation, followed by water supply. South Africa has the most dams in Africa (539), followed by Zimbabwe (213) and Algeria (107). More statistics on the two regions are available from WCD.

The World Commission on Dams
WCD was established in 1998 at the behest of pro- and anti-dam interests who wanted to break the stalemate that had developed between them regarding management and development of dams as a key aspect of water resource management. The two sides first met in Gland, Switzerland in 1997, in a meeting brokered by the World Bank and the IUCN-The World Conservation Union (an umbrella organisation of over 800 NGOs and government agencies involved in environmental issues).
At Gland, the two sides agreed to help set up an independent, non-partisan commission on dams that would conduct a global review of the development effectiveness of large dams; assess alternatives to dams; and establish criteria and guidelines for the assessment and implementation of future dam projects and their alternatives. It should be noted that the WCD does not have a mandate to intervene in or adjudicate current controversies over dams. The WCD's work will end with the publication of its final report in mid-2000.


For further information, please contact:
Nadia Romani, Magicx Communications, 3, Abu El-Feda St., 14th floor, Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt
tel: +202 342 1711/340 2676/ 341-3662/341 3664. Fax: +202 341 3663
E-mail: magicx@gerarcham.com
OR

Kate Dunn, Senior Communications Advisor, World Commission on Dams,
In Cairo 8-13 December at 012 218 6553
E-mail: kdunn@dams.org