Dams and Development harnessing collective energies - Notes from the Chair - World Commission on Dams

UN Chronicle, Sept-Nov, 2001 by Kader Asmal

UN agencies are uniquely placed to take the debate forward towards implementation, and the Commission has called on them to review their technical guidelines in the light of the report and to support capacity-building for comprehensive "options assessment" in developing countries. A range of opportunities exists for doing so, and WCD partners are exploring the linkages with ongoing UN activities, such as the Rio + 10 review, planned for Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002.

The WCD report is a milestone in the evolution of dams as a development option and offers a clear charter for the future. In the words of Nelson Mandela, comparing the Commission's work to his own experiences: "It is one thing to find fault with an existing system. It is another thing altogether, a more difficult task, to replace it with an approach that is better."

The World Commission on Dams, the most comprehensive, independent and inclusive global review of dams ever undertaken, has succeeded in doing just that.

Prof. Kader Asmal is the Minister of Education of South Africa and Chairman of the World Commission on Dams.