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Kathmandu Sunday July 08, 2001 Ashadh 24, 2058.
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On Dams and Development
During the twentieth century, dams became synonymous with the
development. Dams have been built for a variety of purposes: supplying irrigation and
drinking water, producing hydroelectricity, controlling floods, navigation, etc.
Employment generation, export earnings, regional development, skill development, roads,
rural electrification, and industrial development are among the other cited ancillary
benefits of dam-building. Dam building, especially large dams which are defined as
dams with a height of 15 m or more from the foundation, or dams between 5 to 15 m high and
a reservoir volume of more than 3 million cubic meters, accelerated in the post-1950
decades and peaked in the 1970s. It has been estimated that there are over 4,5000 large
dams in the world at present.
During the last two decades, however, there has been a
growing discontent about large dams. As not all benefits promised by the large dams
materialized and as the adverse social and environmental consequences began to appear,
opposition to such dams began to grow. An international conference was sponsored by the
World Bank and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in April 1997 at Gland, Switzerland
that led to the establishment of the World Commission on Dams (WCD). The task of the
commission was "to conduct a rigorous, independent review of the development
effectiveness of large dams, to assess alternatives and to propose practical guidelines
for future decision-making."
The WCD started its study in May 1998 and it lasted for more
than two years. The methodology of the study included: 8 detailed case studies of large
dams; country reviews for India and China; a briefing paper for Russia and the Newly
Independent States; a cross-check survey of 125 existing dams; 17 thematic review papers;
regional consultation; and review of more than 900 submissions.
The result of this study is presented in its recently
published report Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making. The findings
of the study indicate that the performance of most large dams was below standard even when
performance was judged on economic and financial criteria only. Hydro-electricity dams
have performed somewhat better than other types of dams. Construction delays and cost
overruns have been pervasive. Social and environmental impacts were neglected in the
planning and construction of such dams. As a result, dams led to loss of biodiversity,
water logging, increased social inequity, disproportionate adverse impacts on the
indigenous and marginal groups etc.
The report argues that there are viable alternatives to large
dams such as managing demand, improving supply efficiency, and exploring the new sources
of supply (wind and solar power, microhydro, water harvesting, etc.). The preoccupation of
the decision-makers with large dams has, according to the report, prevented the
exploration of such promising alternatives.
The report recommends that future decisions on water and
energy resource development be guided by a "rights-and-risks" approach rather
than by the conventional balance sheet criterion. Various international conventions such
as the United Nations Charter (1945), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1947),
the UN Declaration on the Right to Development (1986), and the Rio Declaration on
Environment and Development (1992) entitle all people to basic human rights and the right
to sustainable development.
There are competing interests involved in the development of
water and energy resources. For example, the construction of large dams may cause
involuntary risks such as relocation, loss of livelihood, and increased flood
susceptibility to local communities. Till now, these people were excluded from the
decision-making process regarding the use of resources in their localities. It is
important to recognize the rights of these people and involve them in all stages of
decision-making in matters that pose risks to them. The report asserts that the decisions
should be guided by the following core values: equity, efficiency, participatory
decision-making, sustainability, and accountability.
Guided by such core values and drawing on the lessons derived
from the review, the report outlines the following seven strategic priorities for the
development of water and energy resources in future: gaining public acceptance,
comprehensive options assessment, addressing existing dams, sustaining rivers and
livelihood, recognizing entitlements and sharing benefits, ensuring compliance, and
sharing rivers for peace, development, and security.
The report then goes on to develop detailed guidelines for
achieving the strategic priorities outlined above. It identifies five key decision-making
points: needs assessment, selecting alternatives, project preparation, project
implementation, and project operation. Finally, the report makes some suggestions about
how national governments, civil society groups, the private sector, bilateral aid agencies
and multilateral development banks, intergovernmental organizations, and academic and
research bodies can contribute to implementation of the recommendations of the report.
Whether or not one agrees with all the findings of the report
on the performance of the large dams, the principles espoused by the report regarding the
decision-making process on future water and energy resources development projects are in
tune with the contemporary thinking on development. The need for the exploration and
evaluation of different options before making decisions, transparency in decision-making,
and the need for grater attention to the social equity and environmental justice issues
can hardly be debated. Participatory decision-making, empowerment of communities, respect
for the rights of local people, and ownership of the programs and projects by the local
people are some of the elements that made community forestry and farmers managed
irrigation systems successful in Nepal and these are precisely the values advocated by the
report. There are good reasons to believe that the application of these values will
improve the performance of water and energy resource projects too.
Hence, the report along with supporting material in the WCD
Knowledge base will be useful not only to those involved in water and energy development
but also to other development practitioners as well. Although the hard copy version of the
report is somewhat expensive to the average reader in Nepal, the report can also be
accessed at the commission’s web site www.dams.org. A Nepali translation of the
executive summary of the report has also been published by Inhured International.
(Shyam K. Upadhyaya is a research specialist at the
Winrock International, Nepal).
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