Dam critics are marking today's release of the report of the World Commission on Dams by challenging the funders of the dam industry, including the World Bank and export credit agencies, to halt all support for dams until the commission's recommendations are fully implemented. The groups are also demanding reparations for social and environmental damage caused by dams. Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy lends her support to the call from non-governmental organizations.
"The World Commission on Dams report vindicates much of what dam critics have long argued. If the builders and funders of dams follow the recommendations of the WCD, the era of destructive dams should come to an end", says Mr Patrick McCully, campaigns director of the California-based International Rivers
Network. [1]
"Had the planning process proposed by the WCD been followed in the past, many dams would not have been built", concludes IRN’s Patrick McCully. Among the ongoing and planned projects which are clearly in breach of the WCD guidelines are China’s Three Gorges dam, the dams on India’s Narmada river, the Ilisu dam in Turkey, San Roque in the Philippines, Bujagali in Uganda, Ralco in Chile, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, and dams in the Brazilian Amazon and the Uruguay River Basin in the far south of Brazil.
"Speaking as someone whose farm is to be flooded by a dam, the key recommendations of the WCD are that no dam should be built without the agreement of the directly affected people, and that reparations are needed for those who have suffered because of past dams", says Mr Sadi Baron, Coordinator of Brazil’s Movement of Dam Affected People
(MAB). [2]
"For planners and engineers of big dams their past mistakes have served only to add to the majestic arc of their 'learning curve'", says Ms Arundhati Roy, the Booker Prize-winning author from India and supporter of the Save the Narmada Movement (Narmada Bachao Andolan - NBA). "It is time for them to get off their learning curve, which has devastated the lives of millions of people, and actually learn", adds Roy, who lends her support to the calls of the anti-dam movement at a press conference in London
today. [3]
"The World Bank and export credit agencies play a key role in dam building and must act on the WCD's recommendations", says Mr Peter Bosshard of the Swiss NGO Berne
Declaration. "NGOs are calling on them to place a moratorium on funding dams until they have adopted the WCD guidelines, and to review all ongoing projects in the light of the new
recommendations." [4]
"It is time for the iron triangle of governments, dam industry and funders to cease building dams until they have incorporated the WCD’s recommendations into their policies and practices", says Ms Liane Greeff of South African NGO Environmental Monitoring
Group. [5]
An NGO declaration published today calls on public funding agencies to halt all support for large dams until they have fully adopted the WCD recommendations and established mechanisms to provide reparations to those who are suffering the impacts of past dams. Under the title, 'From Commission to Action', the declaration also calls for a suspension of all large dams that are currently being planned or under construction until they have been subjected to participatory reviews as advocated by the WCD. The declaration has been endorsed by more than 100 NGOs.
McCully, Baron, Bosshard and Greeff are members of the International Committee on Dams, Rivers and People (ICDRP), which is comprised of human rights and environment groups and peoples' movements from 13 countries. ICDRP member groups pressured the World Bank to establish an independent review of dams and have closely followed the WCD
process. [6]
The World Commission on Dams is an independent body sponsored by the World Bank to review the performance of large dams and make recommendations for future planning of water and energy projects. It is comprised of 12 Commissioners from a wide spectrum of backgrounds ranging from Göran Lindahl, CEO of engineering giant, ABB, to Medha Patkar, leading activist with India's Save the Narmada Movement.
The WCD's final report provides ample evidence that large dams have failed to produce as much electricity, provide as much water, or control as much flood damage as their backers claim. In addition, these massive projects regularly suffer huge cost-overruns and time delays. Furthermore, the report shows that:
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large dams have forced 40-80 million people from their homes and lands, with impacts including extreme economic hardship, community disintegration, and an increase in mental and physical health problems. Indigenous, tribal, and peasant communities have been particularly hard hit. People living downstream of dams have also suffered from increased disease and the loss of natural resources upon which their livelihoods depended;
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large dams cause great environmental damage, including the extinction of many fish and other aquatic species, huge losses of forest, wetland and farmland; and
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the benefits of large dams have largely gone to the already well-off while poorer sectors of society have borne the costs.
Based on these findings, the commission recommends that:
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no dam should be built without the agreement of the affected people;
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comprehensive and participatory assessments of the needs to be met, and alternatives for meeting these needs should be developed before proceeding with any new project;
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priority should be given to maximizing the efficiency of existing water and energy systems before building any new projects;
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periodic participatory reviews should be done for existing dams to assess such issues as dam safety, and possible decommissioning
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mechanisms should be developed to provide social reparations for those who are suffering the impacts of dams, and to restore damaged ecosystems.
All those quoted above will be available at a press conference at Queens and Holyrood Rooms, International Hotel, 163 Marsh Wall, Canary Wharf, 9-10am, Thursday, November 16, 2000.
Case studies analysing how individual dam projects fare against the WCD's recommendations, briefing papers on the WCD and the World Bank and Export Credit Agencies, and excerpts from the WCD report are available at
www.irn.org/wcd.
Notes
1.
International Rivers Network (IRN) is a Berkeley, California-based human rights and environment group which works to support the rights of dam-affected communities and promote sustainable and equitable means of water and energy management. IRN is a member of the WCD Forum.
www.irn.org
2. The Brazilian Movement of People Affected by Dams (Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens - MAB) represents tens of thousands of Brazilian small farmers who have been displaced or are threatened by dams in Brazil. The movement is currently fighting to get reparations for 30,000 families displaced by dams and still waiting for proper compensation. MAB is a member of the WCD Forum.
3. The Save the Narmada Movement (Narmada Bachao Andolan - NBA), the world's largest and best-known anti-dam group, is comprised of tens of thousands of villagers from the valley of the Narmada River and their supporters from around India. They have led a 15-year-long non-violent struggle against dams on the Narmada. The NBA is a member of the WCD
Forum.
www.narmada.org
4. The Berne Declaration is a Swiss NGO with 16,000 members. It has helped to coordinate international NGO campaigns on large dams such as Ilisu (Turkey) and Bakun (Malaysia) since 1968, and is a member of the WCD Forum.
www.evb.ch Peter Bosshard can be reached in London on mobile no. +41 79 478 9194.
5. The Environmental Monitoring Group is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and has been acting as a liaison between the WCD secretariat and global and regional networks of NGOs and communities affected by large dams.
6. Other ICDRP members present in London at the ICDRP's press conference and the launch of the WCD are:
Mr Pedro Arrojo, Coalition of People Affected by Large Dams and Aqueducts (COAGRET), Spain
www.geocities.com/RainForest/Jungle/1839/1qec.htm
Ms. Joan Carling, Cordillera Peoples' Alliance (CPA), Philippines (WCD Forum member)
Mr Göran Ek, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC)
www.snf.se/english.cfm. Can be reached in London on mobile no. +46 70 759 48 68.
Ms Tonje Folkestad, Association for International Water and Forest Studies
(FIVAS), Norway
www.solidaritetshuset.org/fivas/Nyforsideeng.htm
Mr Nicholas Hildyard, The Cornerhouse, UK
www.icaap.org/Cornerhouse.
Mobile no. +44 (0)777 375 0534
Mr. Chainarong Sretthachau, Southeast Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN), Thailand
www.searin.org
Mr Antonio Tricarico, Campaign to Reform the World Bank, Italy
www.unimondo.org/cbm/
Ms Birgit Zimmerle, World Economy, Ecology & Development (WEED), Germany
www.weedbonn.org.
Additional Information
Contact:
Patrick McCully
International Rivers Network
+44 (0)774 892 1420 (mobile)
Peter Bosshard
Berne Declaration
+41 79 478 9194 (mobile)
Nicholas Hildyard
The CornerHouse
+44 (0)777 375 0534 (mobile)
