WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM NOVEMBER 2010 11
WORLD COMMISSION ON DAMS - 10 YEARS ON
“Perhaps an indication of the WCD’s success was that no one
interest was completely happy with the nal product,” former WCD
commissioner Deborah Moore comments. “This means that it truly
represented compromises amongst all interests. My hope had been
that the report would have engendered fruitful, participatory dialogue
at the national and local level that would have inuenced national
laws and policies. That did not happen as much as I would have
liked. However, the WCD report has become the de facto interna-
tional benchmark for dams against which all other policy proposals
are compared, even if the guidelines and recommendations were not
ofcially adopted.”
TEN YEARS LATER
Former secretary general Steiner said that although some had hoped
for a summary judgement or an end to the dams conict, the WCD
recognised that there was no magic formula. “Ten years is not much
time to transform water and energy governance, and it is clear the
issues which led to the establishment of the commission in 1998 are
still current,” he says. “In addition new issues such as climate change
have emerged to drive the demand for renewable energy. The debate
on large water infrastructure continues.”[3]
Bosshard, from an International Rivers’ perspective, agrees:
“The sensitivity of the environmental impacts of dams has grown.
This year’s Global Biodiversity Outlook and IUCN’s Red List of
Endangered Species have found that we continue to lose biodiversity
at an alarming rate, and most particularly in freshwater ecosystems.
Dams are one of the main factors of this trend,” he claims, “and their
social and environmental problems have clearly not been resolved.”
Deborah Moore is amazed that the world is still discussing the
WCD report ten years later. “This shows the report has not simply
stood on the shelf gathering dust. It is a living document – it has been
translated, disseminated and debated. The ideas are still clearly rel-
evant – because the conicts and controversies remain and because
the damage caused by dams continues to grow,” she says. “Until we
can ensure that dam-affected communities are project beneciaries,
and until we can ensure that aquatic ecosystems can be protected, the
WCD recommendations will remain relevant.”
To monitor WCD’s inuence on dam construction and operations
ten years on, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
carried out a small snapshot survey of the global uptake, impact and
perspectives on the commission’s recommendations. The web-based
survey ran for 11 weeks until the end of July 2010.
The survey attracted responses from a wide range of countries and
categories of stakeholders. The main conclusions indicated extensive
knowledge of the WCD recommendations and widespread uptake of
its principles in one form or another. However, there were signicant
weaknesses in implementation. The strategic priorities which received
the most attention were gaining public acceptance, recognising enti-
tlements and sharing benets, with comprehensive options a close
third. While some respondents believed that little attention appears
to have been made to addressing existing dams, with few signicant
changes in practice. [2]
According to Peter Bosshard, awareness about the social impacts
of dams and the rights of affected people has grown over the past ten
years. “Yet we continue to see big gaps between rhetorical commit-
ments and the realities on the ground in many countries,” he adds.
“International development challenges are constantly evolving.
Nobody expects the WCD framework to be implemented to the letter
ten years after it was published. Yet the changing global environment
has conrmed the relevance of the WCD’s key recommendations.”
Moore has seen developments taking place. “One of the most
promising developments of the past decade,” she says, “is the fur-
ther demonstration that true partnership amongst key stakehold-
ers can produce transformative results. Successes on the ground
include Guatemala, the Klamath basin in the US, the Pangani river
in Tanzania and others. These demonstrate that many of the WCD
recommendations around negotiated stakeholder agreements are
working in practice to foster resource-sharing agreements amongst
the affected stakeholders.” [4]
“Stakeholder involvement nowadays is widely considered an
essential step in the decision making on dam development,” Palmieri
comments. “This is certainly the case for multilateral development
institutions and most bilateral ones. The private sector has also
advanced this practice a lot. The next challenge is to make the process
both inclusive and efcient, ie reaching decisions in a time compat-
ible and relevant to the needs to be addressed. This is what I call the
critical speed concept.”
Palmieri reiterated the point that dams not adequately planned,
built and operated can cause unnecessary impacts, but the opposite
is also true when the process is well done. “I believe practice has
improved,” he said and gave the example of the Worldwide Wildlife
Fund which has been working with the International Hydropower
Association (IHA) on a campaign on dams. “They have progressively
and constructively worked with industry and other stakeholders to
produce guidelines for good decision making processes,” he adds.
“The WCD prompted a constructive dialogue which in turn led to the
development of progressive guidelines by the hydro industry; I should
venture to say that this is part of what WCD was trying to achieve.”
Moore still has her doubts. “Practices remain all over the map, in
terms of effectiveness and accountability. There are isolated instances
of policies being followed and improvements being made, and there
Ten years from now
IWP&DC asked a few industry members what they would like to see happening
in the dams debate ten years from now?
Kader Asmal, former chair of WCD:
A fresh view should be provided: one that is non-antagonistic.
Peter Bosshard, Policy Director, International Rivers, US:
Traditional and new dam builders should benet from the experience of the
WCD framework and adopt its key principles as they prepare and strengthen
their own environmental policies. We also believe that government agencies,
funders, the dam industry and NGOs would benet from renewed dialogue
processes at the national and international level.
Thomas Chiramba, Head of Freshwater Ecosysetms Unit, United Nations
Environment Programme:
UNEP would recommend that there be established a non-partisan forum that
can engage both the old and new players in a multi-stakeholder dialogue about
dams, and generate the political will needed to transform the provision of
water and energy services.
Deborah Moore, former WCD commissioner, Executive Director Green
Schools Initiative, US:
1) Move the dams debate ‘upstream’ in the options assessment process to reduce
conict over dams that have made it out of the planning process. All stakeholders
need to be involved in the planning and evaluation process much earlier.
2) Focus on non-dam alternatives...with fewer costs and negative impacts.
3) Improve the performance of the world’s existing large dams to squeeze out
all the economic benets from the investments already made
Alessandro Palmieri, Lead Dam Specialist at the World Bank:
1) More efforts should be made to listen to local stakeholders and promote
local development, in addition to national development.
2) Build capacity in national consultants, planners and contractors, so that
they become the real owners of the projects they need (the IHA Sustainability
Protocol can be a very useful tool in that regard).
3) Address environmental aspects with priority on the main issues and with
larger use of adaptive management. Include payment items, in construction
contracts, for the implementation of the key provisions of environmental
management plans.
4) The allocation of carbon funds to be used, during project operation, to
address unforeseen negative impacts (both environmental and social).
Thayer Scudder, former WCD commissioner, Professor of Anthropology,
California Institute of Technology, US:
Under environmental risks we must think about two kinds in particular. One concerns
the global ecological implications of further reducing the number of free-owing rivers.
The other concerns the nancial and development risks associated with the likely
extreme drought, rainfall and storm risks expected as a result of global warming.