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dam-l Asmal on Dams & Development at Davos/LS
Sorry for cross postings!
from www.dams.org
27 Jan 00
Kader Asmal on Dams and Development at World Economic Forum, Davos
DAVOS, Switzerland, - As with elephants, ivory, the rainforest,
and nuclear energy, large dams
have become a symbol of the fractious debate over defining and
achieving sustainable
development, says Professor Kader Asmal, Chair of the World
Commission on Dams.
In a speech delivered during the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, Professor Asmal
said such symbols "have all served as flagship issues to challenge
the status quo and raise
fundamental questions about development.
"Until recently, dams seemed to offer the simplest and most
effective response to managing water
resources, a technical fix with rapid results and an impressive
legacy in terms of the monumental
nature of dams.
"However, somewhere along the way we realised that simple answers
may be neither as simple nor
as effective as we assume. Society is questioning whether a
technology such as dams can
effectively respond to changing values and priorities. The
economic cost-benefit rationale for dams
does not adequately address the environmental and social goals
inherent in our evolving definition
of development."
Dams provide irrigation, hydroelectricity, flood control, and
urban water, but dams also impose
significant costs in economic, social, and environmental terms.
For example, an estimated four
million people are displaced each year.
The inability of dam proponents and opponents to agree on the
benefits and costs of dams led
the two sides to foster the creation of the World Commission on
Dams in 1998. Its role is to
research and make recommendations on tough social, environmental,
economic, and institutional
questions surrounding dams, and to investigate alternatives to
dams. The WCD will issue its report
later this year. The 12 Commissioners are from wide-ranging
backgrounds, including business,
environment, sociology, engineering, and government. The Chair,
Professor Asmal, is currently
South Africa's Education Minister; he was post-apartheid's first
Water Affairs and Forestry Minister
from 1994-99.
In a Davos session titled 'Give A Dam', Professor Asmal commented
that "in addressing conflicts
over dams, the question remains whether the technology is at
fault, or the decision-making
process. The answer to this question lies at the heart of the
WCD's work. What is already clear is
that we are on the right track in developing a new approach to
global commissions, by
encompassing all sides to the debate in our process."
On Saturday in Davos, Professor Asmal will be part of a discussion
on water as a potential source
of international and domestic conflict.
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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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