D+C Development and Cooperation (No. 2, March/April 2001, p. 3)

A few months after the publication of the WCD report, one can already observe the beneficial effects it is having on the dams debate. As early as January, 2001, Germany became the first country in the European Union to organise its own stakeholder dialogue on how to proceed with the WCD process. Invited by the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) which had supported and co-financed the Commission from the beginning, 150 representatives from government, development agencies, industry, consultings, banks, and NGOs met for two days in Berlin to discuss the implications of the report for Germany’s private and official engagement in the building and financing of large dams abroad. The debates among the different stakeholder groups showed that the Report has created enough common ground to allow for cooperation rather than confrontation in the future. The two Commissioners present - Judy Henderson of Oxfam, Australia, a former Greenpeace activist, and Achim Steiner, WCD Secretary General - both stressed the need “to get out of the trenches and move forward together”. Steiner said the Report was neither for nor against large dams and did not ask for a moratorium on the construction of dams in the future. But, as he said, all stakeholders must now face up to the consequences of past mistakes and follow the ‘rights and risks approach’ recommended by the Commission: an approach which respects the human and social rights of all the people affected by dam projects while at the same time minimising the technical, environmental, economical and financial risks involved.

Compliance with this approach will not make the construction of large dams easier. Development minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul warned industry representatives at the Berlin dialogue that they will have to face new challenges: “Planing and preparation will be more costly; approval of affected people must be gained; implementation will be subject to independent monitoring. And the decision whether a project will actually be realised or scrapped remains open for a longer time, increasing the risk of losing initial investments in project preparation.” But, as the minister pointed out, the private sector will profit in the end from better project preparation which involves the affected population because of lower risks of conflict.

Many participants in Berlin emphasised that in view of a rapidly growing world population and increasing urbanisation, the use of river water for energy generation, irrigation and industrial and domestic water consumption was indispensible. The alternative to harnessing water power was in many cases the building of fossil-fuel power stations with their harmful effect on the environment, or the use of nuclear power. Other speakers, including those of NGO representatives, stressed that softer options must first be exhausted such as using savings and efficiency potentials both in energy and water uses. Small, decentralised installations using alternative sources of energy were often better than huge hydrostations, and instead of irrigating large tracts of land with water from big reservoirs, incurring the risks of salinisation, traditional water harvesting techniques and watershed management provided less harmful alternatives. But even staunch opponents of large dams conceded in the debates that, depending on the circumstances, they could be the best option - provided the guidelines proposed by the WCD report were observed.

The Berlin dialogue has shown: the ideological heat has been taken out of the dams debate. It now seems certain that international financial institutions and bilateral donors will no longer finance dubious projects which would have unacceptable impacts on affected populations and the environment. There are now clear principles and guidelines which can hardly be disregarded without prompting immediate and massive protests from all sides. But by cooperating with the WCD in the process which led to the Report, NGOs and activists have shown that they are ready to listen to reason and arguments. In this question of global interest, all stakeholders have proven that dialogue is a way to success.