15/11/2005
- Gland, Switzerland – Dams are continuing to cause excessive
social and environmental damage despite recommendations
made by the World Commission on Dams (WCD), says WWF.
The report from the global conservation organization,
To dam or not to dam? Five years on from the World Commission
on Dams, looks at six dams under construction in the last
five years, all of which fail to meet these recommendations.
The report shows that dams can damage, drown or even dry
out wetlands, an important source of water. They also
destroy fisheries and threaten endangered species such
as Iberian lynx and jaguars. While promising cheaper power
or water for better irrigation systems, dams can actually
result in economic disruption, with electricity prices
rising and many people displaced.
“This is not the engineering heyday of the 1950's when
dams were seen as the hallmark of development. We know
dams can cause damage and we must put this knowledge to
work," said Jamie Pittock, head of WWF's Global Freshwater
Programme. "Governments along with the World Bank
must insist that the WCD's recommendations are applied
to all dam projects now."
These recommendations aim to ensure that dams are economically
and environmentally sustainable, by ensuring that construction
plans are given public approval, comprehensive assessments
of other options are made and that the economic benefits
of any dam are shared with local communities.
In Belize, the US$30 million Chalillo Dam was meant to
reduce electricity imports and lower electricity prices.
Yet since its recent completion, local people have seen
an average increase of 12 per cent in electricity prices
while the dam has also flooded 1,000ha of pristine rainforest.
According to WWF, the US$650 million Ermenek Dam in Turkey,
together with five other hydropower projects, could result
in insufficient water flow to maintain the variety of
wildlife that lives in the Göksu River delta, recognized
as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar
Convention.
Meanwhile, the livelihoods of 50,000 people in Laos will
suffer when water is diverted from the Nam Theun River
as a result of the Nam Theun 2 hydropower project, approved
by the World Bank. Increased water flow into the Xe Bang
Fai River will reduce fisheries and agricultural land.
The report also highlights OECD findings that Iceland’s
economic policy, for which the Kárahnjúkar
Dam is a flagship project, could cause upward pressure
on inflation and interest rates. Elsewhere, WWF says that
Spain’s Melonares Dam has failed to take account of other
viable and cheaper alternatives to supply drinking water
to the city of Seville. Also, Australia’s Burnett Dam
is struggling to be economically viable and threatens
the endangered Queensland lungfish.
Dams have already fragmented 60 per cent of major rivers
worldwide and displaced up to 80 million people. Currently
over 400 large dams are under construction worldwide and
hundreds more are planned. Much is at stake, according
to the report, as more ill-planned infrastructure will
provoke further environmental damage and negative social
impacts, especially for local communities.
“Bad dams and bad economics are apparently still alive
and kicking five years after the WCD,” said report author
Ute Collier. “As the energy and water crisis tightens,
we need to ensure that we choose the solutions with the
least environmental damage and the greatest social benefits.”
END NOTES:
• The World Commission on Dams was established in 1998
as an independent, international, multi-stakeholder process
to address what had become one of the most controversial
areas of infrastructure development. The dam debate had
become increasingly polarized during the 11000s and one
of the aims of the Commission was to bridge the gulf between
the two camps and produce an independent assessment of
the performance of dams. Furthermore, it was charged with
developing internationally accepted standards, guidelines
and criteria for decision-making in the planning, design,
construction, monitoring operation and decommissioning
of dams. On 16 November 2000, Nelson Mandela helped to
launch the report of the WCD. The 380-page report addressed
the benefits and impacts of dams or, in Mandela’s words,
‘one of the battlegrounds in the sustainable development
arena’. The WCD was disbanded after the report was launched.
• The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran,
in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty which provides
the framework for national action and international cooperation
for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their
resources. There are presently 146 Contracting Parties
to the Convention, with 1469 wetland sites, totaling 128.9
million hectares, designated for inclusion in the Ramsar
List of Wetlands of International Importance. |