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DAM-L LS: WB insists it is not in denial (fwd)
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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 18:16:12 -0800 (PST)
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subject: LS: WB insists it is not in denial
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http://www.bangkokpost.com/311000/311000_News15.html
October 31, 2000
PAK MOON DAM
World Bank insists it is not in denial
River body accused of being misleading
Anchalee Kongrut
The World Bank has refuted criticism by an international anti-dam
organisation that it is in the state of denial for refusing to accept the
conclusion by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) that the Pak Moon dam
project is a failure.
In its rebuttal, the bank said: "It has come to our attention that the
World Bank's views on the WCD case study on Pak Moon have been
misrepresented in a press release issued by the International River Network
(IRN)."
The bank was responding to a press statement released earlier by IRN and
headlined "On Planet World Bank, Thailand's Pak Moon dam is a success.
Arrogance blinds bank to true impacts of disastrous dam".
In the release IRN said: "In a recently leaked memorandum, the World Bank
continues to deny the impacts of the Pak Moon dam despite the findings of
the independent World Commission on Dams and the affected communities'
10-year struggle."
Aviva Imhof, IRN's Southeast Asia campaigner, said: "The bank's comments
demonstrate the continuing arrogance of World Bank staff, who seem
incapable of admitting that they were wrong. The bank said that it would
accept the findings of the WCD study, and now that the study is contrary to
their beliefs, they are attempting to discredit it."
However, the bank took great pain to stress that the study was not the
final opinion of the commission but rather an "input" from a team of
researchers commissioned by WCD to conduct research in a particular case.
The bank quoted WCD chairman Prof Kader Asmal as saying: "The case studies,
thematic reviews, submissions and contributing papers are a unique and rich
contribution to the debate. They are products of many individuals and teams
... Without them there would be no WCD report but the WCD report they were
not."
The collective voice of WCD will be presented in its final report due to be
released on Nov16 in London with special guests attending, such as former
South African president Nelson Mandela, UN Commissioner for Human Rights
Mary Robinson, and World Bank president James Wolfensohn.
In its commentary submitted to WCD in June, the bank said the claim that
the dam construciton has resulted in substantial and permanent loss in
fishery was unsubstantiated.
It attributed the fishery loss to overfishing, pollution and increasing
population.
It called the WCD report's conclusion that the project was not viable
economically as "too simplistic" and criticised the method used by the
research team to calculate the dam's actual benefits.
The bank criticised the WCD for not including its 1998's "unbiased
retrospective report" done by its Operations Evaluations Department (OED).
In that report, the bank praised the resettlement programme of the Pak Moon
dam project as the "best practice" among all projects supported by the bank.
The only weak point of the Pak Moon dam was the lack of baseline on
fisheries like inexact number of local fishermen which led to "exaggerated
and ever-increasing claims for compensation".
The WCD released its final study on the dam in Ubon Ratchathani last
August. The ad hoc organisation which is the creation of the World Bank and
the World Conservation Union has found that the dam has failed to meet its
projected benefits and has had substantial impacts on fisheries.
The study concludes: "If all the benefits and costs were adequately
assessed, it is unlikely that the (Pak Moon dam) project would have been
built in the current context."
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