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DAM-L LS: BBC Reports on WCD Launch (fwd)

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BBC Reports on the World Commission on Dams - November 16, 2000

1) Dams are damned in new report (audio)
2) Human cost of dams 'too high'
3) 'Dams damage environment'
4) Narmada: A history of controversy
5) Malaysian megadam won't go away

------------------------------------
Dams are damned in new report
BBC News
Thursday, 16 November, 2000
------------------------------------

Dams are damned in new report

The World Commision on Dams has
issued a long-awaited report criticising
dams for wreaking ecological havoc,
driving millions of local people from their
homes and failing to deliver promised
prosperity. So why are dams the highest
expenditure item in aid budgets
worldwide?

Click here for an interview with Dai Qing (3 Gorges), Kua Kia Soong (Bakun)
and Jeremy Bird (WCD)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/asiapacific/eastasiatoday/ram/eat1.ram


------------------------------------
Human cost of dams 'too high'
BBC News
16 November, 2000, 13:12 GMT
------------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/newsid_1026000/1026052.stm

By environment correspondent Alex Kirby

[Picture shows graffiti on wall - "Maheshwar Dam is a Curse to Humanity]
Dams arouse strong passions, as here in India

An international group of experts says dams worldwide have provided many
benefits, but often at too high a price.

The experts, members of the World Commission on Dams (WCD), say decisions
on whether to build the structures should respect the interests of everyone
concerned.

They say dams account for more than 10% of global food production and
almost 20% of electricity generation.

But the people affected by them have little say in their planning and
building.

Conflicting interests

The WCD was set up by the World Bank and the World Conservation Union. It
is chaired by Professor Kader Asmal, South Africa's Education Minister.

It has tried to find a way through "the increasingly confrontational debate
about the role the 45,000 large dams have played in development". Large
dams are those over 15 meters high.

Professor Asmal said: "It means nothing to build billion-dollar dams if
your monuments alienate the weak.

"It means nothing to stop all dams if your protests only entrench poverty.

Threatened with arrest

"But show me a clear and sustainable way to provide food, energy, stability
and running water for those who most need it - that means something. And
that we have done."

The award-winning novelist Arundhati Roy opposes the building of the
Narmada dam in India.

She told BBC News Online: "There are a lot of very important things in the
WCD report, though it's obviously a compromise.

"The problem is that it can be used by the funding agencies to pretend they
have an enlightened approach, while the reality remains completely different.

"The industry is learning our language and then carrying on just the same.

"And when the WCD members wanted to come to India to see the Narmada site,
the Gujarat Government threatened to arrest them."

Inclusive approach

The commission's members surveyed 125 large dams, eight of them in detail.
It found that:

* globally, dams account for 19% of electricity generated and for an
estimated 12-16% of global food production
* many fall short of their physical and economic targets
* they have led to the loss of forests, wildlife habitat, and aquatic
biodiversity. Efforts to counter their impact have met with limited success
* estimates suggest that some 40-80m people have been displaced by dams
worldwide, yet mitigation, compensation and resettlement attempts are often
inadequate.

It is almost always the most marginal members of society who are harmed by
dams.

"Little or no meaningful participation of affected people in the planning
and implementation of dam projects has taken place", the commission says.

Other methods available

"The direct adverse impacts of dams have fallen disproportionately on rural
dwellers, subsistence farmers, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, and
women."

The WCD says there is far greater scope for using alternative ways of
meeting people's needs, including renewable energy, recycling, better
irrigation, and reducing water losses.

It is concerned about the loss of cultural heritage involved, and
criticises the environmental performance of large dams.

It says rotting vegetation trapped underwater releases carbon dioxide and
methane, both potent greenhouse gases, and that this can cause more
pollution than generating electricity by burning fossil fuels.

Professor Asmal told the launch of the WCD report: "We reviewed
alternatives. We balanced ideal against possible, and made our decision to
sign this report with confidence.

Reparations demand

"We exclude only one development option: inaction. The cost of conflict is
too high."

Patrick McCully, of the International Rivers Network, which works to link
human rights and environmental protection, told BBC News Online: "The WCD
largely vindicates what critics have been saying for years.

"It recognises the legitimacy of claims for reparations, and we want a
moratorium on all large dams until those reparations are paid and the
commission's recommendations implemented.

"And we want a halt to work on all dams under construction until they've
been properly reviewed."

---------------------------------------
'Dams damage environment'
BBC News
16 November, 2000, 11:03 GMT
---------------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/newsid_1026000/1026214.stm

[Graphic of Ilisu Dam with caption - The proposed Ilisu dam in Turkey has
come under fire]

A major investigation into the impact of dams is reported to conclude that
they cause ecological damage and exacerbate flooding, and that many deliver
less than half the amount of water expected.

The report by the World Commission on Dams (WCD), to be published on
Thursday, alleges that "few dams have ever been looked at to see if the
benefits outweigh the costs", according to the UK's New Scientist magazine.

Those costs include social upheaval, increased flooding, damage to farmland
and the extinction of freshwater fish species, the weekly said.

On the positive side, the WCD study reportedly concludes that dams irrigate
fields which provide about one-sixth of world food production, and also
help power many homes and factories.

But there is a sting in the tail of even those positive comments - the
benefits of dams go more often to urban and wealthy people than to poor
rural ones.

World Bank backing

The World Bank is one of the prime sponsors of the study. It is also among
the leading funders of dams worldwide.

Award-winning author Arundhati Roy, who has campaigned against the planned
Narmada dam in India, welcomed the report.

But she also expressed concern that governments would dismiss it if its
findings did not suit them.

The report is due to be published at 1300 GMT.

------------------------------------------------
Narmada: A history of controversy
BBC News
16 November, 2000, 13:37 GMT
------------------------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1026000/1026355.stm

India's most controversial dam project, the Narmada project, was first
envisaged in 1940s by the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

The dam was part of a vision of development articulated by Mr Nehru.

But several legal and logistical arguments between various Indian states
delayed the announcement of the project until 1979.

The multi-million dollar project involves the construction of some 3,200
small, medium and large dams on the Narmada river.

The Narmada originates in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and
empties into the Arabian sea after flowing through Maharashtra and Gujarat
states.

The Sardar Sarovar is the biggest dam on the river and its construction has
been fiercely opposed.

Controversy

The Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement), which is
spearheading the protest, says the project will displace more than 200,000
people apart from damaging the fragile ecology of the region.

[graphic - Farmland will be submerged once the dam is complete]

NBA activists say the dams will submerge forest farmland, disrupt
downstream fisheries and possibly inundate and salinate land along the
canals, increasing the prospect of insect-borne diseases.

Some scientists have added to the debate saying the construction of large
dams could cause earthquakes.

They say that in a country as disorganised as India, it is likely that the
necessary maintenance of these dams may suffer.

But those in favour of the project say that the project will supply water
to 30m people and irrigate crops to feed another 20m people.

In what was seen as a major victory for the anti-dam activists, the World
Bank withdrew from the Narmada project in 1993.

A massive undertaking

Several other international financial institutions also pulled out citing
human and environmental concerns.

The construction of Sardar Sarovar dam itself was stopped soon afterwards.

Go ahead

However, in October 2000, the Indian Supreme Court gave a go-ahead for the
construction of the dam.

The court ruled that the height of the dam could be raised to 90 metres and
no higher, until cleared by an environmental authority appointed to
undertake the task.

This is far below the proposed height of 130 metres, but higher than the 88
metres that the anti-dam activists want.

So as the anti-dam activists ponder their next move, the government has
started again with construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam.

NARMADA FACTS
Project began in 1979
3,200 dams to be built along 1,200km Narmada river
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan likely to benefit
Opponents says it will displace 200,000 people and damage ecology
World Bank withdrew in 1993
To be fully complete by 2025

------------------------------------------------
Malaysian megadam won't go away
BBC News
16 November, 2000, 15:54 GMT
------------------------------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1026000/1026599.stm

Ambitious development schemes are relatively commonplace in Malaysia, but
the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam project was one that stood out among the rest
when it was first proposed in the mid-1990s.

It was a megaproject of megaprojects - it involved flooding an enormous
tract of prime rainforest, displacing 10,000 native people and some highly
sophisticated engineering, such as underwater cables transporting electricity.

Bakun drew enormous public controversy and was also among the issues that
caused bitter dissension between Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his
former deputy Anwar Ibrahim, who was later sacked and is now in jail.
------
BAKUN'S ORIGINAL PLAN
Biggest dam in south-east Asia
Energy capacity enough to serve Philadelphia and San Francisco
Land area the size of New York City to be flooded
600km of undersea cables to carry electricity from dam site in Borneo to
peninsula Malaysia
Despite protests and law suits, the government went ahead with the $5bn
hydroelectric project. A private company with close links to the ruling
government undertook the project and began logging work.
------

But in 1997, at the height of the Asian economic crisis, the government
shelved the scheme, along with other infrastructure projects, to slash
public spending.

"Bakun... was so ostentatious, it took an almost divine intervention to
arrest its development," the non-governmental organisation Sahabat Alam
Malaysia (SAM) or Friends of the Earth, said.

A large tract of rainforest was to be flooded

However, Bakun's story is not over yet - the Malaysian Government has
recently raised the proposal of restarting the project, although on a
much-downsized plan.

Fresh controversy has also arisen over claims that the 9,000 native people
resettled under the project have very poor living conditions.

New dam plan

The new proposed dam will reportedly not involve underwater cables to
transport electricity from the project's site, on Borneo island, to
peninsular Malaysia.

The 600km cables would have been the longest in the world.

But critics say there is no need for the energy in the local state,
Sarawak, one of the country's less-developed states which already has
enough energy.

"Why throw good money after bad money? The way the government is carrying
on with the project appears to about saving face," said social activist
Meenakshi Raman, legal expert from SAM.

"This is an absurd kind of development policy," said Dr Kua Kia Soong,
former opposition politician and social activist.

Critics contend that the project has reflected some of the worst failings
of the ruling government - a lack of transparency and cronyism.

The project's environmental impact assessment was never shown to the
public, although this is required under federal law - which
environmentalists challenged in the high court.

"There is very little public participation in development projects," said
Elizabeth Wong, a spokesperson from Suaram, a human rights group.


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