Large dams: learning from the past looking at the future : workshop proceedings, Gland, Switzerland, April 11-12, 1997, Part 166

In 1996 the World Bank Operations Evaluation Department completed an internal review of 50 large dams funded by the World Bank. IUCN-The World Conservation Union and the World Bank agreed to jointly host a workshop in April 1997 to discuss the findings of the review and their implications for a more in-depth study. The workshop broke new ground by bringing together representatives from governments, the private sector, international financial institutions and civil society organizations to address three issues: critical advances needed in knowledge and practice, methodologies and approaches required to achieve these advances, and proposals for a follow-up process involving all stakeholders. Annotation Large dams have been a subject of growing international debate and controversy. They have played a key role in economic development, serving a variety of purposes, including electricity generation, flood control, and irrigation. Yet concern about their adverse environmental, social, and even economic impacts is growing. In 1996 the World Bank s Operations Evaluation Department completed an internal review of 50 large dams funded by the Bank. IUCN-The World Conservation Union and the World Bank jointly hosted a workshop in Gland, Switzerland, in April 1997 to discuss the findings of the review and the need for further study. The workshop brought together representatives from governments, the private sector, international financial institutions, and civil society organizations to address the advances needed in knowledge and practice, the methodologies and approaches required to achieve these advances, and proposals for a follow-up process involving all stakeholders. Two days of working together resulted in a pathbreaking consensus on how to move forward. It was agreed that the IUCN and the Bank would establish by November 1997 a two-year international commission, whose mandate is to review the development effectiveness of dams and to develop standards, criteria, and guidelines to advise future decisionmaking. Part I of these proceedings summarizes the workshop discussion and recommendations for future action. Part II contains a series of overview papers commissioned for the workshop on four key topics: engineering and economics; social and stakeholder issues; environmental sustainability; and future challenges facing the hydro industry. Published with financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Controversy has mounted over the last two decades about the role of dams in development. In the 1980s proposals for large dams began to be fundamentally questioned by locally affected interests and global coalitions of environmental and human rights groups. In the 1990s this resulted in a succession of calls for a moratorium on World Bank funding and for reparations for those affected by large dam construction. In April 1997 a workshop jointly sponsored by the World Bank and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) was held in Gland, Switzerland, with stakeholders representing diverse interests from around the world exploring whether they could resolve the highly controversial issues associated with large dams. Part I of this report summarizes what happened in advance of this workshop, during the two days of discussions, and immediately following the workshop's conclusion. The proceedings identify the implications for how to build on the initial consensus and sustain its momentum. Part II contains the full text of three overview papers that were commissioned (The Engineering and Economic Aspects of Planning, Design, Construction, and Operation of Large Dam Projects; Social Impacts of Large Dam Projects; and Environmental Sustainability in the Hydro Industry: Disaggregating the Debate) and two others that were reproduced to inform the discussions (Meeting Hydro's Financing and Development Challenges and Hydropower: A New Business or an Obsolete Industry?). Contributors from governments, business, international financial institutions, and civil society organizations address critical advances needed in knowledge and practice, methodologies and approaches required to achieve the advances, and proposals for a follow-up process involving all stakeholders. Their views are presented in a summary report and five overview papers on such topics as engineering and economic aspects, social impacts, and environmental sustainability. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR