27 January 2000
Kader Asmal on Dams and Development at World Economic Forum, Davos

DAVOS, Switzerland, - As with elephants, ivory, the rainforest, and nuclear energy, large dams have become a symbol of the fractious debate over defining and achieving sustainable development, says Professor Kader Asmal, Chair of the World Commission on Dams.

In a speech delivered during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Professor Asmal said such symbols "have all served as flagship issues to challenge the status quo and raise fundamental questions about development.

"Until recently, dams seemed to offer the simplest and most effective response to managing water resources, a technical fix with rapid results and an impressive legacy in terms of the monumental nature of dams.

"However, somewhere along the way we realised that simple answers may be neither as simple nor as effective as we assume. Society is questioning whether a technology such as dams can effectively respond to changing values and priorities. The economic cost-benefit rationale for dams does not adequately address the environmental and social goals inherent in our evolving definition of development."

Dams provide irrigation, hydroelectricity, flood control, and urban water, but dams also impose significant costs in economic, social, and environmental terms. For example, an estimated four million people are displaced each year.

The inability of dam proponents and opponents to agree on the benefits and costs of dams led the two sides to foster the creation of the World Commission on Dams in 1998. Its role is to research and make recommendations on tough social, environmental, economic, and institutional questions surrounding dams, and to investigate alternatives to dams. The WCD will issue its report later this year. The 12 Commissioners are from wide-ranging backgrounds, including business, environment, sociology, engineering, and government. The Chair, Professor Asmal, is currently South Africa's Education Minister; he was post-apartheid's first Water Affairs and Forestry Minister from 1994-99.

In a Davos session titled 'Give A Dam', Professor Asmal commented that "in addressing conflicts over dams, the question remains whether the technology is at fault, or the decision-making process. The answer to this question lies at the heart of the WCD's work. What is already clear is that we are on the right track in developing a new approach to global commissions, by encompassing all sides to the debate in our process."

On Saturday in Davos, Professor Asmal will be part of a discussion on water as a potential source of international and domestic conflict.