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Dams and Development: A new framework for decision-making
The Report of the World Commission on Dams
Published by Earthscan, 120 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JN, UK
Email: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk
or http://www.earthscan.co.uk
2000, 404pp., ISBN 1 85383 798 9 (Pb) £20.00
For many years it has been the habit of popular prejudice to write-off large dams as the classic example of blind, donor-driven development. Clearly a proper, detailed analysis of exactly how large dams - and there are over 45,000 of them in the world - have had an impact for better or worse, is long overdue. Enter 'Dams and Development', the report of the World Commission on Dams.
The scope of the report is huge, but falls into two principal sections. The first is a global review of the impact of large dams, examining both the technical and economic issues, as well as the social and environmental effects. Two further chapters set out the alternative options for water and energy resource development, and the traditional decision-making processes that have resulted in dam constructions.
The report tries to untangle the frightening mass of issues that lies behind the 'to build or not to build a dam' question, and rejects the traditional 'balance sheet' approach of weighing up costs and benefits. This, it argues gives inadequate consideration to the values that different societies may attach to the different options for development.
Instead it argues that the planners must first identify the stakeholders in their plans, those whose rights are likely to be affected or whose way of life, livelihood or culture may be at risk. The central message of the report is that these stakeholders must be fully integrated into a transparent, legitimate and publicly accepted decision-making process.
Setting out a framework to achieve such a process is the task of the report's second section. It presents seven priorities that planners should focus on, which include assessments of how existing dams can be used more productively, how rivers and river-based livelihoods can be sustained, and how to ensure compliance.
The report accepts that sharing resources, for example between a local community and the wider population of a country, is unlikely to be without controversy, and moreover admits that many countries do not have the legal and institutional structures necessary to implement such a participatory way of decision-making. But through a careful structure it breaks down the mass of considerations into more manageable chunks, and offers a comprehensive theory as to how planners might approach the issue of water and energy provision.
It is, ironically, fairly dry reading, with very little in the way of examples or case studies. However for those concerned with water and energy resource development, whether in governments, NGO's or financial institutions, the report offers a useful summary of the impact of big dams, and a detailed theoretical framework as to how future decisions could be made.
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