Report criticizes dams for human, environmental cost

The Xiling Gorge on the Yangtze River in China where the Three Gorges Dam is slated to be built

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Dams have delivered major benefits to more than 140 countries but have exacted a high price in human hardship and environmental damage, experts said on Thursday.

If financiers and builders of the world's 45,000 large dams had planned better, fewer people might have been displaced, more livelihoods could have been salvaged and the loss of fish and bird species might have been avoided.

"If you do not do your homework you are going to end up with a lot of unanticipated or unexpected costs, be they financial, political or environmental," Achim Steiner, the secretary general of the World Commission on Dams (WCD), told Reuters.

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A new report by the commission, an independent body whose sponsors include the World Bank, is the first assessment of the world's dams. It concludes that the homework on many dams was never done.

"The most fundamental negative finding we have come across is the pervasive and systematic failure to fully account for the social impact dams have had on communities, both displaced and those placed downstream from a dam," said Steiner.

"We estimate there are about 40-80 million people that have been displaced by dams. You are talking about a very significant number of people."

In addition to the human tragedy, the 12-member commission which includes representatives from industry, dam owners, governments and environmentalists, found that many dams are run inefficiently, involve cost overruns and have led to accidents and the loss of flood plains, forests, fisheries and wildlife.

The commission recommends that large dam projects should only be approved if they meet a framework and guidelines, set out in the report, that recognize the rights and assess the risks of all interested parties.

Critics of dams immediately seized on the report as a vindication. They challenged the funders of the $42 billion per year dam industry, including the World Bank and export credit agencies, to stop supporting all dam projects unless they meet the report's criteria.

They also call for reparations for the social and environmental damage caused by dams.

"Had the planning process proposed by the WCD been followed in the past, many dams would not have been built," Patrick McCully, of the California-based International Rivers Network, said in a statement.

The challenge could influence the future of 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 and Ralco in Chile among others.

Activists against dam-building say those projects do not comply with the WCD framework.

"Each dam is a unique understanding. What we are trying to do with the report is provide decision makers and the public with the criteria with which to assess the choice they are making," Steiner explained.

But he stressed that the report only offered recommendations and it was up to governments and other parties to comply with them.

The report said China and India have half of the world's dams. Dams account for 19 percent of electricity generated worldwide, and 24 countries generate more than 90 percent of their power from dams.

Dams also contribute to 12-16 percent of global food production and provide flood control services in more than 70 countries. Half of the world's dams are built for irrigation.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The World Commission on Dams
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