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Dams are important contributors to the development of many countries. They improve
and expand power generation, irrigation, and domestic and industrial water supplies,
and provide security against droughts and protection from floods. At the same
time, they often submerge substantial areas and change the pattern of river flows
downstream, causing, in some cases, significant adverse impacts on the environment
and local communities.
The WCD has produced a carefully prepared and well-written Report which has stimulated
a wide-ranging and productive discussion of many of the most difficult issues
facing developing countries and agencies who work with these countries. The process
used by the WCD in preparation of the Report facilitated an unprecedented dialogue
between all parties. The Report makes a substantial contribution to addressing
the wide-ranging issues surrounding large dams. It presents innovative ideas for
dams to contribute more dependably to sustainable development. The World Bank
has disseminated the WCD Report widely among its shareholders, and continues to
participate in and benefit from the ongoing discussion.
The Report of the WCD advocates:
- Five core values - equity, efficiency, participation, sustainability and
accountability - for future decision-making on dams;
- A rights and risks approach for identifying stakeholders in negotiating
development choices and agreements;
- Seven strategic priorities - gaining public acceptance, assessing options,
addressing existing dams, sustaining rivers and livelihoods, recognizing entitlements
and sharing benefits, ensuring compliance, and sharing rivers for peace, development
and security;
and
- A set of criteria for assessing compliance and twenty-six guidelines for
review and approval of projects at five stages of decision-making.
World Bank staff have reviewed the Report thoroughly, and have consulted widely
with its Executive Directors, with governments themselves, with non-governmental
organizations, with other international financing institutions, and with private
financiers and developers. In common with virtually all those consulted, the World
Bank shares the WCD core values and concurs with the need to promote the seven
strategic priorities.
The focus of much controversy regarding the WCD Report has centered on the twenty-six
"guidelines", which have been interpreted by some proponents and critics
of the Report as a pro-posed new set of binding standards. The World Bank' s conclusion
on the guidelines is best summarized by the Chair of the WCD, who has explained
that "our guidelines offer guidance - not a regulatory framework. They are
not laws to be obeyed rigidly ... They are guidelines with a small 'g'."
Individual governments and/or private sector developers may wish to test the application
of some of the WCD guidelines in the context of specific projects. In such cases,
the World Bank will work with the government and developer on applying the relevant
guidelines in a practical, efficient and timely manner.
The World Bank supports its many borrowers that want to continue to learn and
improve practice - planning, technical, economic, environmental, and social -
in construction and operation of dams. Consistent with the WCD recommendations,
the World Bank will support strategic planning processes conducted
by borrowers to enhance the evaluation of options and alternatives for energy
and water management. The World Bank will also support borrowers in financing
sound priority investments emerging from such processes, and will continue to
apply its existing policies to these and other projects.
As part of this process, the World Bank has initiated a "Dams
Planning and Management Action Plan" to strengthen its work in the water
and energy sectors and to improve the evaluation, implementation, and operation
of dams when they are the appropriate development option. The Action Plan comprises
activities in six complementary areas:
- Working with borrowers to move "upstream",
so that all energy, water supply and flood and drought protection options are
assessed;
- Continuing to emphasize institutional reform
for more efficient use of water and energy;
- Effectively implementing the World Bank's existing
safeguard policies;
- Continuing to support borrowers in improving the
performance of existing dams;
- Practicing a proactive and development-oriented
approach to international waters; and
- Continuing to support innovative approaches
and capacity building for dealing with complex dam-related management and technical
issues.
In reviewing the WCD Report, the World Bank has paid particular attention to the
sections which are relevant to World Bank operational policies. In broad outline:
there are no major differences regarding the World Bank's operational policies
on environmental assessment, natural habitats, safety of dams or cultural property;
there are limited issues regarding projects on international waterways; there
are some issues related to involuntary resettlement and indigenous peoples; and
the WCD Report proposes a different framework for project preparation. The following
sections outline the differences between the recommendations of the WCD and current
World Bank operational policies, and the position of the World Bank regarding
the recommendations.
On the Project Preparation and Consultation Process. The WCD Report recommends
a multi-stage process including the following steps: the location, scope and design
of the project is determined based on an agreement by all stakeholders; a stakeholder
forum assesses alternatives for the detailed layout of the dam; cumulative and
interactive aspects of existing infrastructure on the river are addressed in the
design of the dam through an agreement reached with the stake-holders and operators;
final design includes provisions for emergency preparedness and decommissioning;
mitigation, resettlement, monitoring and development plans are agreed with affected
groups and signed as "contracts" with them; performance bonds are secured,
trust funds established and integrity pacts signed before project implementation
starts; and licensing to construct and operate the dam is conditional on
satisfactory implementation of agreed mitigation and development plans.
The World Bank remains committed to implementation of its operational policies
to ensure that: key stakeholders are systematically identified and involved in
project planning and implementation; upstream meaningful consultations are
held with affected groups to guide project decision making, and their views and
preferences are reflected in the plans developed as an integral part of the project.
The implementation of mitigation and development plans is funded as an integral
part of the project budget and regularly monitored, both by the Borrower and the
World Bank. The World Bank notes that in both developed and developing countries
the State has the right to make decisions that it regards as being in the best
interest of the community as a whole, and to determine the use of natural resources
based on national priorities.
On Involuntary Resettlement. The WCD Report recommends that: all adversely
affected people negotiate formal and legally enforceable mitigation plans (in
cases where negotiations stall, an independent dispute resolution process is required);
any outstanding resettlement issues associated with existing large dams on the
same river be identified and remedied before new infrastructure is built; adversely
affected people be recognized as first among the beneficiaries of the project,
and mutually agreed and legally protected benefit sharing mechanisms negotiated
to ensure implementation; a clear agreement with the affected people be reached
on the sequence and stages of resettlement before construction on any project
preparatory works begins; compliance plans be enforced through independent review;
and the license to construct and operate the dam include conditions related to
successful completion of resettlement, mitigation and development plans.
The World Bank 's resettlement policy is built on the principle of informed
participation of the affected people in resettlement planning and implementation,
but does not require the negotiation of development and mitigation plans. This
approach ensures that affected people are assisted in their efforts to improve,
or at least restore, their standards of living, in a manner that is consistent
with their cultural preferences, while retaining the rights of the State to exercise
eminent domain for the larger public interest as appropriate in the circumstances.
The World Bank has been and remains committed to seeing that thorough baseline
studies are conducted to identify affected people and the extent of impacts. Its
operational policies require that affected people are provided opportunities to
participate in resettlement planning and implementation, and draft plans are disclosed
in the project area to obtain the views of affected people before they are finalized.
Implementation of the agreed mitigation and development plans is reflected in
the legal agreements between the World Bank and the Borrower. Resettlement implementation
is monitored by the Borrower and the World Bank, and "independent panels"
are increasingly engaged in projects with major resettlement impacts. The recently
approved World Bank operational policy on involuntary resettlement also requires
an early review of resettlement implementation to use the lessons learned for
subsequent implementation. World Bank-financed projects are not considered
complete until agreed plans are fully implemented, and follow-up surveys are conducted
at project completion to document the extent to which the incomes and standards
of living of affected people have been restored. The findings of these surveys
form the basis of discussion on follow-up measures, as necessary, with the Borrower.
A chapter of the forthcoming World Bank resettlement sourcebook will describe
good-practice elements of reservoir resettlement, drawing on, among other sources,
the extensive knowledge base compiled by the WCD.
In the past the World Bank has, when requested by the Borrower, supported actions
to resolve outstanding resettlement (and other social and environmental) issues
from past projects. The World Bank is also willing to assist borrowers in developing
their national, regional or sectoral social and environmental policies and legal
frameworks.
Indigenous Peoples. The WCD Report proposes that indigenous and tribal
peoples should give their free, prior and informed consent to the project.
The World Bank requires that free and meaningful consultations with directly affected
indigenous groups be undertaken prior to the initiation of detailed project preparation,
and the draft operational policy on indigenous peoples requires that the World
Bank and the Borrower take into account the results of such consultations in deciding
whether to proceed with the project. Where the World Bank decides to proceed with
project processing, mechanisms are established to ensure the informed participation
of indigenous peoples in project preparation and implementation. If indigenous
peoples are likely to be adversely affected by the project, the Borrower is required
to conduct a social assessment to help assess the scope and extent of adverse
impacts, and to discuss proposals to avoid, or minimize and mitigate them. Indigenous
Peoples Development Plans are prepared to help mitigate adverse impacts and to
promote tailoring of benefits based on the preferences of the people concerned.
Such pla ns are reflected in the legal agreements between the Borrower and the
World Bank. The World Bank is thus dedicated to ensuring that the views of the
affected people are carefully documented and taken into account by project decision
makers, without infringing on the right of the State to make decisions which it
judges to be the best solution for the community as a whole.
Projects on International Waterways. The WCD recommends that where a government
agency plans or facilitates the construction of a dam on a shared river in contravention
of the principle of good faith negotiations between riparians, external financing
bodies withdraw their support for projects and programs promoted by that agency.
The scope of the World Bank's policy for projects on international waterways
is not as broad as the recommendation of the WCD in this regard. Except in specified
circumstances, the World Bank policy does not allow financing of a project on
an international waterway until all the riparians are notified of the project,
and have voiced no objection. If there is an objection from one of the riparians,
then World Bank staff assess and confirm that the project will not cause appreciable
harm to the interests of the other riparians. The World Bank may in appropriate
cases appoint one or more independent experts to examine the project details and
submit a technical opinion thereon. However, the World Bank considers a blanket
prohibition on work with an agency that has built a dam in contravention of good
faith negotiations to be too broad and to foreclose many opportunities for productive
collaboration. The World Bank has been and remains committed, in accordance with
the main objective of its operational policy on projects on international waterways,
to taking a proactive role in supporting riparians to make appropriate agreements
or arrangements for sharing and managing the entire wate rway or any part thereof.
The World Bank considers the WCD Report to be a major contribution in defining
the is-sues associated with large infrastructure in developing countries, and
in engaging a wide variety of stakeholders in the debate. The World Bank is committed
to continued support for its borrowers in developing and managing priority hydraulic
infrastructure in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner, and
views the WCD Report as a significant point of reference in this process. The
World Bank intends to continue to work with its borrowers in effective implementation
of current World Bank operational policies, which the WCD describes as the
most sophisticated set of policies, operational procedures and guidelines amongst
the international donor community.
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