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dam-l World Comm. on Dams

>
>ASMAL LAUNCHES WORLD COMMISSION ON DAMS
>CAPE TOWN February 16 1998 Sapa
>
>     The real costs of building large dams, and particularly the social
>     and economic benefits to communities effected by them, needed to
>     be re-examined, Water Affairs Minister Prof Kader Asmal said on
>     Monday.
>
>     He was speaking to the media at the launch in Cape Town of the
>     World Commission on Dams, of which he is chairman. Also present at
>     the function was the Indian high commissioner to South Africa,
>     Lakshmi Jain, who was recently elected vice-chairman of the same
>     body.
>
>     The World Commission on Dams is an independent international body
>     - established in April 1997 by the World Bank Group and the World
>     Conservation Union (IUCN) - with a two-year mandate to examine all
>     issues concerned with the effectiveness of large dams around the
>     world.
>
>     "Clearly too little time has been spent on the various
>     alternatives to large dams... I hope we can give this issue
>     sufficient attention over the next two years," Asmal said.
>
>     "We will also need to consider recommendations around the
>     effective monitoring and evaluation of large water projects."
>
>     Video messages from the key initiators of the commission - James
>     Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, and David McDowell,
>     director-general of IUCN - were heard at the briefing.
>
>     The commission's main objectives and goals are:
>
>     - to review the effectiveness of dams and to assess alternatives
>     for water resources and energy development; and
>
>     - to develop internationally-accepted standards, guidelines and
>     criteria for decision making in the planning, design,
>     construction, monitoring, operation and decommissioning of dams.
>
>     "Our job is not to be policemen," Asmal said, "people can draw
>     their own conclusions from our reports."
>
>     The commission will submit a final report to the World Bank and
>     the IUCN, as well as to the international community at large, in
>     June 2000. An interim progress report will be released in June
>     1999.
>

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      Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
           International Rivers Network
              1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
                  Tel. (510) 848 1155   Fax (510) 848 1008
                        http://www.irn.org
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