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DAM-L LS: WCD SE Asia Launch, Nov 24. (fwd)
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From owner-irn-mekong@netvista.net Thu Oct 5 00:14:38 2000
Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 21:05:25 -0700 (PDT)
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subject: LS: WCD SE Asia Launch, Nov 24.
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WCD Locks In SE Asian Launch
__________________________________________
DAMS COMMISSION SETS REGIONAL LAUNCH OF FINAL REPORT IN BANGKOK NOVEMBER 24
CAPE TOWN, October 3 -- Twenty nine months after its birth, seventeen months
after it began its case study of Pak Mun dam in Thailand, twelve months
after starting a Cross-Check Survey of 45 dams in Asia and Australia, nine
months after a Regional Consultation in Hanoi and five months after reading
338 Submissions from the region, the World Commission on Dams has completed
its work.
To fulfil its mandate, the Commission will present its comprehensive global
analysis, independent findings and authoritative criteria and guidelines for
action in Bangkok on the 24th of November, with a goal of turning
controversies of the past into consensus for the future.
"The proof of the pudding is always in the eating," said WCD Chair Kader
Asmal. "So the real test of our work will be whether our report helps
countries meet the day-to-day needs of our thirsty, hungry citizens without
exhausting the waters that sustain us all. The measure of our progress over
the last two years is how practical and useful our collective work has been
for all. Only then will it endure."
Prominent among its issues is the Pak Mun dam in Thailand, itself part of a
larger debate on development throughout East and Southeast Asia. The
government of Thailand readily agreed to let an independent team of Thai
experts analyse and prepare a case study commissioned for the WCD on Pak Mun
dam. The team has completed that study and upon its release, fuelled debate
and news accounts.
But Pak Mun is merely one of ten dams selected across the world as part of a
case study programme. And those case studies are a fraction of all the
evidence prepared for the WCD, such as a global cross-check survey of dams
which included, regionally: Japan, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea,
Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia.
All these studies, reviews, surveys and reports, like Pak Mun, provide
inputs to the WCD Final Report. They concern the planning, decision making,
performance, construction, operation and decommissioning of large dams. The
Commission then uses them to frame criteria and guidelines on future
decisions on water and energy development options. The WCD's findings,
lessons and criteria and guidelines will be presented in its final report,
to be presented in Bangkok on 24th November.
"All our commissioned case studies and thematic reviews are inputs to, not
outputs of the Commission. The research which goes into the WCD does not, by
itself, pass judgement, or make recommendations," said Secretary General
Achim Steiner. "Only one document embodies the conclusions of and speaks
with one voice from the Commission, and that is our Final Report, which will
first be released in London on the 16th of November, then to all regions
right afterward."
In the case of Thailand, the case study authors provided the WCD with
important insights. Dr. Sansanee Choowaew of Mahidol University's Faculty of
Environment and Resource Studies and a key member of the WCD's Pak Mun Case
Study team put the lessons from the Pak Mun dam in context:
* "The project complied with the standards of the cabinet at the time
and was thus approved. If the project also complied with the international
funding agency's standards at the time of appraisal in 1990, many of the
serious unexpected impacts could have been avoided. The Pak Mun project has
given an expensive lesson that expected benefits from fisheries turn out to
be much lesser than unexpected costs for fisheries management, for fisheries
compensation, and for complicated conflict resolution concerning social
aspects of fisheries."
Each major study, report, review and survey prepared for the WCD has been
rigorously peer-reviewed by the primary interests involved. In the case of
Pak Mun, for example, that includes review and comments by the Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the World Bank, and civil society
organisations. Not all reviewers will agree with the authors' conclusions in
the study.
However, reviewers of the Pak Mun study identified a number of issues where
interpretations of the evidence continue to diverge. Among the disagreements
are questions of the scope of environmental impacts and their mitigation, as
well as the economic rationale of Pak Mun within Thailand's overall power
generating system:
* World Bank country director, Mr. Shivakumar: "EGAT complied with the
World Bank standards at the time of appraisal in 1990. The height of the dam
was reduced and its location changed to drastically reduce resettlement of
persons and to preserve the Kaeng Tana and Kaeng Saphue rapids which are
tourist attractions. This was done at a substantial sacrifice in power
benefits...The method the Bank used to evaluate the economic viability of
the project was the appropriate one for a power project which was being
constructed as a component of an integrated system. And this methodology
complied with the Bank's guidelines."
* EGAT Dep. Governor, Mr. M.L. Chanaphun Kridakorn: "The power benefit
of the Pak Mun Dam is the core benefit of the project. Other benefits such
as fishery, irrigation, etc. are secondary, and are not necessary for
project justification. The peak generation of 126-136 MW has been achieved
in 1995-1999 indicating that Pak Mun can serve more than the dependable
capacity of the peak month used in the planning criteria which was already
conservative. Further, Pak Mun dam construction did not induce a sudden
damage on fish diversity in the Mun river. Evidence reveals that the number
of fish species found during the year 1969 to the year 1993 was only 158.
And EGAT paid compensation not only to directly affected families but also
to indirectly affected."
The WCD case studies aim to present an independent view as well as
documenting differing perspectives on the evidence presented by the study
team. Thus, it incorporates comments it felt were matters of fact and
accuracy that could be independently verified. Where significant differences
remain, these are noted in the executive summary, and the report, and in the
annexes where the full text of reviewers comments are reproduced for all
parties to consider. In the interest of transparency, participation and
inclusiveness, WCD distributes the report to the public, partners,
participants and media, and posts it on the web site: www.dams.org.
A recent editorial in the Bangkok Post called the study "an eye-opening
report," but then asked, appropriately, "What next? The study was done by an
independent, neutral party to tell it like it is. If respected, the
long-denied truth can help resolve conflicts between the people and the
state in the face of spiralling natural resource wars."
Indeed it can. The Pak Mun case study provided one of many insights into the
work of the Commission. The WCD Final Report goes beyond learning from the
past and presents a new framework for decision making with clear directions
and practical guidance. It does not tell either the people or the state what
to do. It does, however, provide the clear evidence, historic context and a
step-by-step framework from which all parties can carefully develop lessons
from the past to shape policies for their future.
____________________________________________________________________________
______
The World Commission on Dams was founded by industry, NGOs, governments,
environmentalists and aid agencies to undertake the first independent,
comprehensive global assessment of large dams and establish common ground in
the fiercely contested battlefield of resource development. To do so, it
read 947 papers and ten in-depth case studies, met nine times on five
continents, listened to stories of 130 people from 68 countries, reviewed
hundreds of dams, debated for many days, and rewrote draft after draft until
all twelve Commissioners agreed on the evidence on the performance of dams
in the past, and how to make sustainable decisions about water and energy
development in the future.
____________________________________________________________________________
______
World Commission on Dams Secretariat
PO Box 16002, Vlaeberg, Cape Town. 8018 South Africa
* +27 21 426-4000 Fax: + 27 21 426 0036
E-mail contact: jworkman@dams.org/ Home Page: http://www.dams.org
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