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dam-l World Commiss. on Dams-LS (fwd) wall street journal article
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Subject: World Commiss. on Dams-LS
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>>The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition -- March 19, 1998
>>
>>World Dam Commission Seeks To Bridge Opposing Interests
>>
>>By G. PASCAL ZACHARY, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>>
>>Under cover of darkness, 10,000 villagers dodged police roadblocks and
>>invaded a dam under construction on the Narmada River in the Indian state
>>of Madhya Pradesh.
>>
>>The dam would flood out thousands of families and their farmlands. The
>>protesters occupied the site for 20 days and left only after a state
>>official in January suspended construction.
>>
>>The dispute over a dam in India isn't an isolated case. In India's Narmada
>>region, where scores of dams are planned, protests have persisted for a
>>decade. In Malaysia, the government last year was forced by financial
>>problems to abandon a $5 billion dam project that would have flooded an
>>area larger than Singapore; before the country's financial woes overwhelmed
>>the venture, the government had insisted on proceeding with the trophy
>>project despite international criticism holding that the dam was
>>uneconomical and would hurt Borneans.
>>
>>International aid organizations, once the prime benefactors of big dams,
>>have cut back their commitments out of concern about the downside. One
>>loser: China's huge Three Gorges Dam, which now relies heavily on domestic
>>funding.
>>
>>World Dam Commission
>>
>>Such visible logjams over dams are the sort of situation a newly formed
>>World Dam Commission is designed to address. The commission, launched by
>>the World Bank last month and based in Cape Town, South Africa, relies on
>>one of the planet's rarest commodities -- cooperation between government
>>and industry, on one hand, and their environmental and human-rights critics
>>on the other.
>>
>>Those spearheading the dam commission see it as a way to tackle a much
>>broader problem afflicting a range of resource-development industries, from
>>mining to logging to oil exploration. The odds are growing that these
>>projects will be paralyzed by bitter fights between developing countries,
>>supported by industry, and environmentalists and others worried about the
>>natural and human toll of resource development. The test case is dams, and
>>though it is showing some cracks, it seems to be holding.
>>
>>The World Bank, a major funder of dams and other big infrastructure
>>projects in developing nations, began working on its dam commission after
>>an unusual spasm of self-criticism at an international dam conference last
>>spring. The commission has representatives from industry, environmental
>>groups and advocates for people affected by dams. It is co-sponsored by the
>>World Conservation Union, a moderate environmental group with ties to many
>>governments. World Bank officials hope the commission will establish
>>international norms for sound dam building, killing off poorly conceived
>>projects while giving a seal of approval to high-quality ventures around
>>the world.
>>
>>"For people trying to balance development and the environment, this is the
>>best idea to come down the pike in a long time," says Richard Bissell, the
>>commission's staff coordinator.
>>
>>New Ground for World Bank
>>
>>Of course, seeking middle ground on interminable environmental disputes is
>>all the rage these days, and events such as the 1992 Rio conference on the
>>environment and last year's Kyoto conference on climate change show the
>>difficulty involved. But the dam initiative is a new push for the World
>>Bank, a pivotal player because of its role as financier of so many resource
>>projects.
>>
>>"People want to get beyond the individual controversies around each
>>individual dam," says Deborah Moore, a dam expert at the Environmental
>>Defense Fund who was tapped to serve on the commission. "Rather than
>>repeating the same tired arguments, it's time to ask how can we better
>>define a common ground."
>>
>>Even the World Bank concedes that poorly designed dams, many it helped
>>fund, have done environmental harm and uprooted millions of villagers in
>>developing countries. Dam building has all but ceased in the U.S. and
>>Western Europe, but in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, hundreds of
>>big dams are planned. Dam opponents are partly responsible for the fact
>>that the World Bank, the U.S. Export-Import Bank and other
>>quasigovernmental lenders are stepping back from the most criticized
>>projects.
>>
>>'We Don't Have the Moral Authority'
>>
>>The seeds of the commission were planted in April. At a meeting in
>>Switzerland convened to review a study of several large dams partly funded
>>by the World Bank, John Briscoe, the bank's senior representative, shocked
>>some dam critics by agreeing that an independent review of the projects was
>>a good idea. Given the bank's record of financing certain dams that
>>devastated both land and people, Mr. Briscoe said, "we don't have the moral
>>authority to make these judgments." He added that dam critics, usually
>>treated as pariahs in government and industry circles, "deserve enormous
>>credit" for criticizing shoddy dam projects "when no one else would listen."
>>
>>Mr. Briscoe's attitude convinced activists that a truce might be achieved.
>>The carrot was the chance to shape projects from day one. "A big problem in
>>the past is that [ordinary people] have had very little access to the
>>decision-makers behind big dams," says Joji Carino, a Philippine dam critic
>>also chosen as a commissioner. "The commission offers a chance to change
>>that."
>>
>>Governments, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to broaden political support for
>>dam building. The Chinese themselves, busy building the biggest dam in
>>history at Three Gorges, wanted to participate. Swedish-Swiss engineering
>>giant ABB Asea Brown Boveri AG, which has a $3 billion contract to provide
>>generators for the curtailed Malaysian dam, endorsed the commission and
>>even partly funded it.
>>
>>"We want clear rules," says Jan Stromblad, ABB's senior vice president for
>>environmental affairs. "And if we stick to them, we don't want to be
>>criticized."
>>
>>Concerned but Pragmatic Chairman
>>
>>In August, the commission picked as chairman Kader Asmal, South Africa's
>>water minister and a human-rights activist considered sympathetic to
>>criticisms of dams yet realistic about the need for developing countries to
>>improve their energy and water supplies. The idea now was that Mr. Asmal
>>would lead a half-dozen working commissioners in a two-year study of large
>>dams and use the results to develop guidelines. While the guidelines would
>>be voluntary, Mr. Briscoe was convinced that if the various stakeholder
>>communities -- governments, dam builders, affected people and environmental
>>activists -- adopted them, they would win wide influence.
>>
>>Trouble erupted in October, when the commission leaders circulated a list
>>of proposed commissioners that dam critics felt contained too few from
>>their side. Some governments, such as Turkey, which is planning scores of
>>big dams, also complained about being left out. Mr. Asmal countered with a
>>stinging memo criticizing members from the industrialized North for failing
>>to realize just how badly emerging countries of the South needed big dams.
>>
>>"It is important not to confuse the indiscriminate development and
>>dambuilding which has taken place in the industrialized world during the
>>20th century," he wrote, "with the legitimate development needs of the
>>developing world."
>>
>>Fears of a 'Setup'
>>
>>The memo stunned the environmentalists, who already were suspicious of Mr.
>>Asmal for supporting dams in Lesotho that supply water to South Africa. Ms.
>>Moore, of the Environmental Defense Fund, was alarmed by the memo. "It
>>sparked my fears that maybe this is a setup" to neutralize dam critics, she
>>recalls. Her fellow dam critics threatened to bolt from the commission, an
>>act that effectively would have killed it.
>>
>>In December, Mr. Briscoe privately railed against the activists he had
>>worked so hard to include. "The tremendous frustration for me," he says,
>>"is you want these people in, but they make it hard." He was especially
>>concerned that activists "will feel very righteous as outsiders but
>>accomplish nothing."
>>
>>In a last-ditch effort to save the commission, Mr. Asmal held a meeting in
>>Cape Town. As 10 people sat in a Holiday Inn, the key spokesman for the dam
>>critics, Shripad Dharmadhikary, arrived straight from the occupation
>>protest in India. His arrival underscored the commitment of the activists.
>>Parochial interests melted, and a list of commissioners was agreed upon. As
>>part of the deal, critics received five spots on the 12-member commission,
>>not enough to steamroll industry but enough, commission supporters say, to
>>force meaningful changes in dam-building practices.
>>
>>Still, this latest compromise may be but a prelude to more squabbles when
>>the dam commission begins its study this spring. Mr. Asmal expects the
>>commission to have a contentious life as it pushes global standards in an
>>arena that has none.
>>
>>"Nothing will satisfy every group or tendency," he says, "but there must be
>>broad agreement. Otherwise, it won't be worth doing."
>>
>>Copyright © 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
>
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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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