[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

dam-l Dams Newsletter



Dams
Newsletter

Editorial
Why a World Commission on Dams? For those who did not follow its genesis
the WCD may be a surprising initiative. More often than not the
establishment of 'yet another commission' may be greeted with
skepticism.
Unlike many other Commissions, the World Commission on Dams had to
survive its 'baptism of fire' before it was even launched. Its history
reflects the fractious nature of the debate on the successes and
failures of dams. Few would have believed that the antagonisms
surrounding the issue of dams could have allowed people from all sides
of the debate to work together over 8 months to jointly establish an
independent Commission.
The process of negotiation facilitated by the IUCN - World Conservation
Union and the World Bank in late 1997 enabled representation from
governments, the private sector, NGOs, affected peoples organisation and
multilaterals to work together for the first time. This 'reference
group', as it came to be know, set a precedent for a new type of
Commission process - bottom up rather than top down!
The WCD moves beyond the traditional boundaries separating public
sector, private sector and civil society. Its membership - carefully
balanced to avoid any bias for or against dams - reflects the assumption
that global public policy issues can no longer be addressed without the
active participation of all three sectors.
During the initial months the Commission concentrated on developing a
consensus on objectives, strategy and the approach to implementing the
work program. As the WCD prepares for its third meeting in Sri Lanka in
mid - December it has successfully completed its establishment phase.
This, the first edition of a quarterly newsletter together with the
relaunched web site signal the start of an intensive dialogue with all
stakeholders and interests groups. The WCD work programme is an open
invitation to all to interact with the Commission over the next 18
months.

Achim Steiner
Secretary General           


Towards a new Paradigm


Established through a process involving representatives from all
perspectives of the debate, the WCD sets a new precedent for addressing
development and resource management conflicts at an international level.
It recognises that such conflict resolution can no longer be addressed
by governments alone, but must include civil society and the private
sector. Its main task is to address a central issue of controversy in
the global debate on sustainable development. 

The commission believes that the lessons learnt from the success - and
failures - of dams can provide rare insight into what can be done to
address crucial issues such as economic growth, social equity,
environmental conservation and public participation. With at least one
billion people having no access to adequate water for daily consumption,
let alone to meet development aspirations, the need for proper water
resource planning and consideration of dams and alternatives cannot be
over-emphasised. 
In recent years the building of any dam has rarely escaped controversy.
Often it has turned into a conflict of interest between local
communities and the dam builders with accusations that calls to "Let
every voice count" in the planning and construction have gone unheeded. 

Issues of controversy include: 
*	How should countries meet growing energy and water demands?
*	When do dams represent the best option?
*	How can environmental impacts be valued - is hydropower cleaner?
*	How much do ecosystems suffer?
*	Who benefits and who bears the costs of such projects? There are
numerous cases where costs have been underestimated. 
*	Was consideration given to how dam communities would be affected
- including their rights with regard to traditional use of resources,
preservation of their cultural heritage and their ability to participate
in the planning of the dams

It is against this background that the WCD's mandate was hammered out at
a workshop organised by the IUCN -The World Conservation Union and the
World Bank in Gland, Switzerland, in 1997. A reference group composed
of, among others, representatives of governments, civil society, dam
affected communities and the private sector, proposed that the WCD
compile a report by June 2000 that: 
1.	Reviews the development effectiveness of dams and assesses
alternatives for water resources and energy development. 
2.	Develop internationally acceptable criteria, guidelines, and
standards where appropriate, for the planning, design, appraisal,
construction, operation, monitoring and decommissioning of dams. 
3.	The WCD has three outputs planned for completion by June 2000: 
*	A global review of the development effectiveness of dams. 
*	A framework for options assessment and decisions making
processes for the development and management of water and energy
services. 
*	A set of criteria, guidelines, and standards where appropriate
for the planning, appraisal, design, construction, operation,
monitoring, and decommissioning of dams. 

To achieve these objectives, the WCD will: 
*	Review and assess the experiences with dams and other options
for power, irrigation, water supply and flood management. 
*	Identify good practices for internalising externalities in
economic analysis.
*	Analyse institutional approaches, policy frameworks and sector
planning strategies - i.e. lessons learnt and "best" practices with
particular emphasis on policy and legal frameworks, including governance
and human rights. 
*	Examination of social issues with particular emphasis on
displacement, resettlement and rehabilitation as well as impacts on
downstream communities. 
*	Investigation of environmental issues including environmentally
sustainable river basin management as well as environmental impact
assessment and mitigation.
Given the time constraints and mandate of the WCD, its approach to
studying the issues will focus on understanding the knowledge available
on dams and the varying perspectives of different groups. The
Commission's approach will thus draw on five principal sources; 
*	Expertise of Commission members and Secretariat staff (for
example: existing data and information to be collected, reviewed and
synthesised). 
*	Consultation with interest groups (e.g.: hearings, workshops,
meetings ).
*	Case studies and thematic reviews conducted and commissioned by
the WCD. 
*	Expert advice and guidance solicited through panels and task
forces. 
*	Case studies and thematic reviews will provide a means of
studying in detail specific dams, river basins, sectoral strategies and
key issues. 

The WCD's final report will provide decision makers and interest groups
with an assessment of dams and their alternatives, as well as key
elements of a more effective decision support system composed of tools,
methodologies and procedures to assess various socio-economic,
managerial and technical alternatives and a set of criteria and
guidelines to address the dams option within the broader context of
sustainable management of water and energy resources. 



Kader Asmal:

That Dam Man

By John Carlin


If South Africa were a normal country Kader Asmal's transformation, in
the autumn of his years, from law professor at Trinity College, Dublin,
to minister of water in the government of Nelson Mandela might raise a
puzzled eyebrow or two.
But nothing comes as a surprise these days in South Africa, a land of
opportunity so whimsically bountiful that, in the blink of an eye, a
prisoner becomes a president, trade union leaders become captains of
industry and communists assume the financial reins of an economy
rigorously free market in its orientation.

Professor Asmal, in whom the cultural influence of Ireland blends
cheerfully with the genetic heritage of the East, has taken with
remarkable gusto to the portfolio he took on four years ago, when the
African National Congress took power following South Africa's first
democratic elections. Even the government's worst detractors will
concede that if there is one ministry that has delivered on its
electoral promises, and done so with efficiency and admirable toil, it
is Water Affairs and Forestry.

Recognition of Professor Asmal's impressive achievement in making the
transition from whisky aficionado to water authority has extended beyond
South Africa's borders, notably in his selection this year as chairman
of the newly formed World Commission on Dams.

For a man recently diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, the very notion of
contemplating so global an addition to his ministerial burdens (the
world has 40,000 large dams) would seem a trifle over-ambitious. Yet in
an interview at his office in Pretoria, Professor Asmal, whose energy
and optimism are matched only by his famed passion for justice and human
rights, addressed himself to the task of the WCD with typically boyish
vigour.

"Our work is for two years," Professor Asmal said. "After that our
function is finished, our commission expires. It's the first time ever
that such a thing has been done. We're working hard. Nothing
concentrates the mind as the imminence of death and nothing concentrates
our minds like imminence of expiry."

What will the Commission's work actually consist of? In essence, he
explained, it is to come up with a report that will serve as the
international benchmark, the standard, for all parties concerned in one
way or another with the building -- or indeed the closure of -- dams.
"Our report will be a referential point for international institutions,
from governments, private bankers and the World Bank to environmental
organisations and affected people, i.e. communities whose lives are
shaped to a some degree by living in the vicinity of dams."

In an important sense, the purpose of the report will be "to distill",
as Professor Asmal put it, the views and interests submitted to the
Commission in the course of the next 18 months (the Commission ends its
work in June 2000) in such a way as to help ensure that governments will
be held fully accountable for all actions they take relating to dams.

"Often these projects are an Ozymandias thing," Professor Asmal said,
quoting Shelley. "'Look on my works ye mighty and despair'. They have
been seen as national symbols from Nehru to Roosevelt. Dams are seen as
an espresso of mighty capacity. Every minister and president has wanted
to be identified with such projects. They are great macho symbols,
because they are very visible, because you are taming nature. You're
taming the wilderness, you're conquering nature. Dam construction obeys
a sort of primeval instinct, really."

It is to restrain that macho instinct, or rather to impose upon it a
logical and an equitable set of rules under the principle of viable and
sustainable development, that the Commission has been established.

"The last few years have seen conflicts between governments on the one
hand and environmentalist groups and affected people on the other,"
Professor Asmal said, identifying the areas where the Commission's
mediation would be helpful. "Such conflicts have sometimes resulted in
violence, occupation and alienation. In other cases there have been
attacks on governments when projects have been cancelled. Also there are
transnational aspects to dam building, the association between financial
bodies, the World Bank and governments. 
So the Commission has been set up as a rather unique project whereby the
interest groups on all sides come together and say, 'Look, is it
possible to have agreed rules for the construction, maintenance and
closure of dams? Is it possible to remove the aggravation and the
irritation?' Because there is no predictability at the moment. If a
government decides to have a project like this, the debate generated by
the opposition could last nine years before any decision is taken, and
then the building takes another eight or nine years, so the original
assumption is lost in that 18 years period. It is to try and avoid such
confusion and delay that the Commission has been set up. That is why the
Commission represents, through its dozen international members, all the
interests involved, from the bankers to associate financiers, to dam
builders and engineers to representative affected peoples groups and
those who want to look at whether there are alternatives to dams,
alternatives to hydropower."

"Are there feasible alternatives? Is dams value for money? We're going
to be posing all the questions and in the answers we will be taking a
unified approach, categorically not responding to the interests of any
pressure group and recognising always the need to balance the
environmental, social and ecological concerns against the increasing
demands of economic development. Don't forget that the construction of a
dam is often the largest investment a country will ever make, certainly
in the smaller countries like South Africa."

The urgency to act is all the greater today, Professor Asmal said,
because of what he calls the greater "fascination" with the question of
water.

"Water, of course, is always with us. But its economic value has not
been fully appreciated until now. In India, I learnt the other day,
rural people don't pay for water. In Ireland a government fell when it
considered charging rates for water. But what some people fail to take
into account is that whereas water itself is a natural resource, some
might say possessing a mystical quality even, its transport and
maintenance and purification does not come free. It is expensive."

The demand for water, the pressure on governments to deliver, grows as
the world economy grows. "The poor consume only 35 to 40 litres per
person a day. Middle class people use 350 to 400 litres -- and that is
all over the world, in South Africa, in Asia, in Europe."

There is a multinational dimension to the problem, Professor Asmal said,
all the more so "as the enormous importance of water is now recognised".
For example, plans afoot now in Turkey to build new dams could cause
problems for downstream countries. "Tension between states is a
possibility. In broad terms there are a dozen situations in the world
where multinational interests are at play. Also there are tensions
within nations, between states -- as in India where some states don't
want the construction of a dam, other states very much want it. To avoid
clashes with countries and between countries is a large part of the
Commission's study. Always, our purpose will be to see how countries can
reconcile differences. We will then come up with a set of rules valuable
to all parties and sustainable positions that states can invoke and say,
'We are meeting the criteria laid down by the World Commission on
Dams'."






Orange River Pilot study

Review of the performance and development effectiveness of Gariep and
Vanderkloof dams, Orange River,

As part of the 2-year mandate of the World Commission on Dams, a review
of the development effectiveness of large dams in the world is to be
undertaken. Before launching the worldwide case studies program for up
to 15 focal dams in the context of national and trans-national river
basins, an initial pilot study on the Orange River was selected to test
the concepts, methods, data collection procedures and means of
interaction with the stakeholders. The experience with the pilot
exercise will be used to formulate the terms of reference for the
worldwide case studies;  and secondly, to provide a model or example
report to guide the other in country teams preparing the other case
studies. 

The Orange River Project

The Orange River Project was first authorised by the South African
Government in a White Paper of 1962-63. The project was rapidly approved
and South Africa financed the Orange River Project from the national
budget during the 1960s and 1970s primarily through foreign exchange
earnings from gold exports.

The central objectives of the Gariep and Vanderkloof dams were to store
and divert water to promote and stablilise irrigation along the Orange
River and in the Eastern Cape. Secondary objectives included supply of
water to urban centres and industries in the southeast, reduction of
severe flood damage and electricity generation.

The White Papers of the time lay out the following benefits from the
scheme:
*	irrigation of some 310,000 ha (360,000 morgen) of land, and
create employment for 40,000 workers, improving the livelihood of some
160,000 people (workers plus their dependents)
*	the benefits of power generation from an installed capacity of
altogether some 150 MW
*	supply of water to the towns of Bloemfontein, Kimberley, De Aar,
Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Cradock, and many small towns in the
southern Free State, North-Western Cape, and Eastern Cape Province.

Review methodology
The four main lines of information collection for the pilot case studies
will aim to provide:

a.	Basin profile
b.	Focal dam assessment
c.	Interactive effects of dams within the catchment
d.	Data base information on the non-focal large dams in the
catchment

For the case studies the concept of "development effectiveness" is taken
in the broader sense. This includes the relevance and appropriateness of
large dams as a response to the needs that motivated their construction
(e.g. irrigation, power, flood management, water supply). It further
comprises the projected versus actual services and benefits, the costs
associated with results obtained, the distribution of gains and losses
among groups, and the general conditions under which they were built and
are operated. This latter aspect relates to decision-making and
consultative processes, and to the ex-post validity of the key
assumptions upon which dam projects were originally developed.

At the basin level the WCD will not be conducting an evaluation of the
present need for, nor the value of, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.
But it will try to examine the effects of the Orange River Project on
the Lesotho Highlands Water Project will also evaluate the changing
institutional framework for decision-making by comparing the laws,
policies, criteria and guidelines that existed at the time of that the
Gariep and Van der Kloof Dams were built with the governance structures
that have shaped the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.  This will be a
test of whether it is feasible for the WCD to conduct similar
cross-temporal analyses of decision-making process comparing focal dams
with the latest dam building process in its other case studies around
the world.
Current status of the review

The WCD has openness, transparency and participation as some of its
guiding principles. The Orange River review is no exception to this and
provides an opportunity for sharing the approach and methodology with
interested groups. The WCD secretariat has therefore drafted a scoping
paper (available on the web site) that was submitted to a meeting of
stakeholders and experts on 17 November 1998 to review the proposed
approach, ensure that all divergent views are brought into the process,
and that the key issues surrounding the benefits and impacts of these
dams be included in the review. More information on how you can
contribute is available on the Orange River section of the website or
through WCD Secretariat.

During December and January a study team composed of Secretariat staff
and South African consultants will undertake the pilot study, reporting
back to a stakeholder meeting in February 1999.


The following are some of the key themes to be addressed as part of the
thematic reviews in the WCD Work Programme.
Social Issues
*	Social Impact of Large Dams : Equity and Distributional Issues
*	Dams , Indigenous people and Vulnerable Ethnic Minorities 
*	Displacement, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Reparation
Options Assessment
*	Assessment of Electricity Supply and Demand Management Options
*	Assessment of Irrigation Options
*	Assessment of Water Supply Options
*	Assessment of Flood Control and Management Options
*	Decommissioning, Refurbishment and Relicensing of Dams
Environmental Issues
*	Dams, Ecosystem Functions and Environmental Restoration 
*	Dams and Global Changes
Economic and Financial Issues
*	Economic, Financial and Distributional analysis
*	International Trends in Project Financing

Institutional Processes
*	Sectoral Planning Approaches 
*	Environmental and Social Assessment for Large Dams
*	River Basins - Institutional Frameworks and Management  Options
*	Regulation, Compliance and Implementation 
*	Consultation and Decision Making Process 


EARLY SUCCESS IN FUNDRAISING

"The early funding pledges from a diverse range of interests have been
very encouraging.  However, given our tight deadlines the Commission
must raise the remaining funds as a matter of urgency" says professor
Asmal, Chairman of the Commission.

It's one thing to talk about creating a World Commission on Dams. It's
quite another for the polar-opposite players in the dams debate to ante
up the millions of dollars necessary for this co-operative venture which
none of them, individually, can control.  Yet in just five months the
Commission has received firm pledges covering 55 per cent of the $9.8
million necessary for it to carry out its multifaceted mandate. "That's
an unusually quick response from donors who often take far longer to
make funding decisions," said WCD Secretary-General Achim Steiner. Most
importantly, the money has come from a wide cross-section of actors in
the debate, thus ensuring the Commission's independence. Whether the WCD
will be able to fulfil its complex, global mandate by the June 2000
deadline will depend on pledges from the rest of the diverse community
involved in the dams issue.

The funds pledged thus far come from NGOs, the private sector,
governments of countries both South and North, and multilateral
agencies. The size of each contribution is in keeping with the old
adage, "From each according to its means", and range from $800,000 from
the World Bank, which co-founded the WCD along with the IUCN, to $2,000
from the US National Wildlife Federation. A number of governments led by
Norway with US$800,000 have so far committed a total of $3.5 million.
They include China, Japan, Germany, South Africa, United Kingdom,
Denmark, Switzerland and Sweden. 
Corporate donations so far total $893,000, led by $200,000 from
engineering giant ABB as well as Hydro Quebec a major utility with
US$170,000.   Substantial commitments have been received from Siemens,
Skanska, Atlas Copco and Enron as well as  consultancy firms such as
Harza Engineering, which assisted the WCD with its corporate fundraising
efforts.
Commitments have also been made from the non-governmental sector. Thus
far, the U.S.-based MOTT Foundation, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF)
and the US National Wildlife Federation have pledged a total of $37,000.
Regardless of the size of each donation, the commission's make-up
remains carefully balanced between the various interests involved in the
dams question. "The WCD is a unique endeavour encompassing the various
parties to a very polarised debate," said Commission Chairman Professor
Asmal. "Their willingness to commit funds with 'no strings attached' has
been central to the notion of a multi-stakeholder process.  We hope
others will feel encouraged to follow suit".  The World Commission on
Dams aims to raise the remaining US$4,0 million by mid 1999.



Income Pledges in US Dollars Donor	  Total	
 
ABB	 200,000 	

Atlas Copco USA	50,000  

 China Ministry of Water  Affairs	20,000 	

Coyne & Bellier France	5,000 	

Denmark -  Ministry of Foreign Affairs	50,000 	

Germany - BMZ	800,000 	

Harza Engineering - USA	10,000 	

Hydro Quebec	258,000 	

Japan/OECF	500,000 	

MOTT Foundation	25,000	

National Wildlife Federation - USA	2,000	
		
Norway - Ministry of Foreign Affairs	750,000	
		
Sweden - SIDA	490,000	
		
Siemens 	65,000	
		
Skanska	50,000	
		
South Africa - Ministry of Water Affairs	20,000	
		
Switzerland/SDC	 650,000  

Tractebel - Belgium 	5,000	

United Kingdom - DFID 	 675,000 

Voith Varner  / Sulzer  	 200,000 

World Bank  	 800,000  

WWF International 	10,000  

Total	5,235,000 	


**************************************************
To Unsubscribe from this list, send this message:
To: hq@indaba.iucn.org
Subject: <not required>
         and in the **first line of the message** write:
unsubscribe dams-l

To contact the list owners: dams-l-owner@indaba.iucn.org

The services and facilities to support this list are provided by The Information Management Group, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.