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dam-l Submission: Paying for Southern African Dams/LS

Sorry for x-postings!

For a complete version of this submission please contact liane@kingsley.co.za.

Paying for Southern African Dams
Socio-Economic-Environmental Financing Gaps

By Patrick Bond

Submission to the World Commission on Dams
Submitted by:

Environmental Monitoring Group,
PO Box 18977  Wynberg, South Africa, 7824
Tel: +27 +21 7610549/788 2473 Fax: 762 2238
Email: liane@kingsley.co.za

Group for Environmental Monitoring
P.O.Box 30684 Braamfontein 2017
Johannesburg, South Africa
Tel:011 403 7666 Fax:011 403 7563
Email: rsherman@gem.org.za

International Rivers Network
PO Box 2723
Gaborone, Botswana
Tel: +267-353-337, Fax: 359-337
Email: stever@info.bw

        EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

- Too much money has been spent on very large dams in Southern
Africa, in relation to other uses of funds a) that are of a more
urgent priority to the majority of citizens, b) that would save water
and prevent environmental damage, and c) that would result in fairer
distributions of water in a region that remains amongst the world's
most unequal.

- Too high a proportion of the costs of large dams are passed to
low-income people, who therefore pay the bills for water that is
predominantly wasted by inefficient, hedonistic users.

- Too much emphasis in dam financing is placed upon enhancing the
short-term profits of major corporate water or electricity users as
justification for dam construction, without considering either the
long-term nature of costs borne by government, or the equally vital
short-term water and electricity requirements of low-income people
who are too often denied access due to affordability.

- Too much of the money borrowed for large dams has come from
"hard-currency" sources, when in fact locally-sourced cement, steel
and labour comprise the main cost inputs and should be sourced from
local financial markets.

- Too often, the inappropriate financing of dams has been motivated
by geopolitical and multinational corporate interests, which are
ultimately hostile to both democracy and the material interests of
the majority of the region's citizens.

- To address these gaps between what is required for sustainable
development and what present systems offer, a dramatic reform of dam
financing principles and practices is required in Southern Africa,
incorporating a) better socio-economic-environmental cost-benefit
analysis of dams; b) sensitivity to distributional implications of
dam financing; c) more accurate matching of hard-currency inputs and
debt liabilities for dam construction and operation; and d) a more
democratic, less corrupt relationship between dam financing and
politics.

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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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