30 October 2000
Chairperson's message prior to launch
WCD Chair asks for judgement on Commission to be reserved until the final report is released

Dear friends and colleagues

Many of you have over the past two years been closely involved in or followed the work of the World Commission on Dams. I thus felt that I should write to you at this stage to report on the progress we have made towards completing our mandate.

At the end of August, the Commission met for the ninth and last time to consider the final draft of the WCD report. It was in many respects the most substantive but also intense meeting of the Commission as we sought to bring closure to what can only be described as an extraordinary journey of learning and reflection. As a group of twelve very different individuals with an enormously diverse and rich background in knowledge and experience we had been set a task that seemed to many beyond reach. It is therefore with great satisfaction and admittedly some relief that I write to you today to report that our work has been completed.

At this very moment the final report is being proof read and finalised for dispatch to the publishers. None of us in the Commission could quite anticipate the enormous challenges we would face in managing a global public policy process of this nature. The fault lines in this debate run deep and the mistrust on all sides clearly illustrates that the time for a World Commission on Dams had indeed come. Whether it can meet all the expectations remains to be seen when you hold the report in your hands.

During the past few months you may already have noticed public statements and press reports about the Commission's work, what it has found and what its conclusions are. No doubt there will be many more who will claim to be speaking with authority on or on behalf of the Commission in the months ahead. In many respects this is a good sign and is welcomed by all of us as it indicates a high level of interest in the issues we were asked to address.

However, in the interests of all concerned and indeed our own accountability I would like emphasise that so far all products generated in the context of the WCD process- to which we refer as our knowledge base - are inputs to, not outputs of the Commission. The case studies, thematic reviews, submissions and contributing papers are a unique and rich contribution to the debate. They are the products of many individuals and teams who either at our request or on their own initiative prepared these reports and papers to assist us in our research and analysis. Without them there would be no WCD report but the WCD report they are not!

Our collective voice and therefore the shared analysis and conclusions of the Commission will be presented in the final report which we will release on November 16th, 2000. Our global launch programme will begin in London followed by an initial round of regional launches and briefings in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Until March 2001 we will make ourselves available to support a global dissemination effort to ensure that the report of the Commission becomes accessible to as many countries and communities as possible. We hope that this will provide us with a further opportunity to meet and interact with you.

The WCD will be formally decommissioned at the launch of the report on November 16th. It was established by the various interests in the dams debate for a particular purpose and a specific mandate. It has provided a platform and focus for open and independent reflection and discourse. I believe we have proven the value of creating such a context and culture for dialogue. However, commissions should be a catalyst but not an alternative for this kind of dialogue. Our termination is therefore also an impassioned call to all actors in this debate to seek local and national fora for continuing and expanding opportunities for meeting, listening and understanding each others perspectives as a basis for achieving greater consensus on the future development of water and energy resources.

With my best wishes

Yours sincerely

Professor Kader Asmal
Chair, World Commission on Dams