On April 10-11, 1997, the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department and IUCN-The World Conservation Union hosted a workshop entitled Large Dams: Learning from the Past Looking at the Future. The workshop was held at IUCN headquarters in Gland, Switzerland and paid for by Swiss bilateral aid agency SDC. The 37 participants included representatives from the World Bank, IUCN, the private dam industry, public dam-building agencies, academia, and NGOs critical of large dams.

The main outcome of the workshop was agreement to work together to form an independent international commission to review the performance of dams and their effectiveness as "engines of growth", assess alternatives, and recommend international standards on dam planning, construction, and operation. The commission is to be established by November 1997 and will have two years to prepare its report. The 5-8 expert members of the commission and its terms of reference are being prepared by a joint team from IUCN and the World Bank in consultation with the participants in the Gland workshop.

NGO participants present at the meeting believe that an independent international dam review commission has great potential to seriously restrict the building of destructive dams. Its findings on the actual performance of completed dams would presumably show that many promises made by dam builders have not been realized.

Recommendations on international standards for dam construction would provide a set of guidelines which NGOs could insist be followed by both public and private dam builders.

Recommendations on sustainable and equitable methods of land and water management would also be useful campaign tools.

Recommendations on reparations for people who have suffered because of dam construction and on ecological restoration could help provide justice to dam-affected people and highlight the costs of dam construction which dam builders have so far avoided paying.

For more information:

Patrick McCully
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703, USA
Tel.: +1.510.848 1155
Fax: +1.510.848 1008
E-mail: patrick@irn.org