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dam-l LHWP editorial in Christian Sci Monitor/LS

>From the Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 27, 1999:


US can help stop brewing water wars
>
>Korinna Horta and Lori Pottinger
>
>A global water crisis is brewing, scientists
>warn, and we must find new solutions or
>face the specter of widespread water
>warfare. Water management experts say
>the large-scale infrastructure projects
>traditionally offered as the solution cannot
>alleviate water conflicts. Instead, the
>emphasis must be on conservation and
>water equity. Unfortunately, the World
>Bank - the world's largest development
>lender and a powerful force in shaping
>water infrastructure - has been extremely
>slow to shift gears.
>
>Instead, the bank maintains a water
>portfolio laden with huge, old-style water
>schemes. At minimum, such projects
>typically fail to solve the inequities in water
>distribution that spark water conflicts. In
>regions where most people have no access
>to fresh water and cannot afford the water
>from costly big dams, these projects can
>actually make things worse.
>
>In September, a massive World
>Bank-funded water project in the African
>nation of Lesotho helped spark precisely
>the type of armed confrontation water
>experts predict. South African troops
>invaded Lesotho - a tiny independent
>mountain kingdom located within South
>Africa - ostensibly to quell public protests
>against the lack of democratic reforms. But
>newspapers in the region reported that
>protection of the South African-built
>Lesotho Highlands Water Project - which
>pipes water from Lesotho into South
>Africa's arid industrial heartland - was a
>major military priority. What has been
>called the region's "first water war" left 17
>people dead near one of the project's
>dams, and dozens more in and around the
>capital.
>
>The project has been fraught with social
>problems from the beginning. So far, two
>of the project's five proposed dams have
>received their key World Bank funding.
>The just-completed 182-meter-high Katse
>Dam is the tallest in Africa, while the
>proposed 145-meter Mohale Dam will
>flood some of the most fertile land in
>Lesotho, where agricultural land is
>extremely scarce and food security a
>serious issue. Local people have lost their
>land, access to water, and often their
>homes with little or no compensation. With
>water shortages already forecast for
>Lesotho, the reservoirs will become an
>increasingly cruel taunt.
>
>Meanwhile, huge project costs have nearly
>doubled water prices in South Africa's
>most populous region, putting it out of
>reach of the poor blacks already suffering
>from water inequities created under
>apartheid.
>
>Who are the beneficiaries? A clue came at
>a recent awards ceremony recognizing the
>project's "exemplary and excellent use of
>concrete." The Lesotho official in charge of
>the project called Katse Dam a "symbol of
>partnership between the project sponsors
>and the construction fraternity."
>
>Unfortunately, the Lesotho Highlands
>project is far from unique among World
>Bank water-development schemes. In the
>past few years, nearly half of the bank's
>water-sector loans have been for
>large-scale infrastructure projects, while
>small-scale irrigation and watershed
>management and conservation remain a tiny
>slice of the pie at less than 6 percent of
>total water lending.
>
>The bank's recent lending patterns show a
>disturbing resistance to experts' growing
>emphasis on sustainable water
>management. The institution has endured
>years of criticism over its support for more
>than 600 large dam projects that have
>created huge environmental and social
>costs while also contributing to the
>inequitable distribution of water and power.
>
>This prejudice toward big infrastructure
>projects promotes unsustainable,
>inequitable water-management - in short,
>the perfect setting for future water wars.
>The World Bank urgently needs to reverse
>its approach to water management to one
>that will help avert rather than worsen the
>world's growing water crisis.
>
>The United States, the largest World Bank
>donor, should request an in-depth
>evaluation of the Lesotho project and the
>bank's approach to water resources
>development. This would provide valuable
>lessons about more effective uses of public
>funds to help the poor and protect the
>environment. These lessons are critical to
>reducing the risks of future international
>water wars.
>
>  Korinna Horta is a senior economist at
>the Environmental Defense Fund in
>Washington. Lori Pottinger is the head of
>southern Africa programs at the
>International Rivers Network in Berkeley,
>Calif.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>********
>*****
>   *********
>Korinna Horta
>Environmental Defense Fund
>1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW
>Washington, D.C. 20009
>Tel. 202-387 3500 (ext. 125)
>Fax 202-234 6049 ************
>                                      *************
>                                              ***********
>

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      Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
        and Editor, World Rivers Review
           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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