Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-making : the Report of the World Commission on Dams

Front Cover
Earthscan, 2000 - 404 pages
By the year 2000, the world had built more than 45,000 large dams to irrigate crops, generate power, control floods in wet times and store water in dry times. Yet, in the last century, large dams also disrupted the ecology of half the world's rivers, displaced tens of millions of people from their homes and left nations burdened with debt. Their impacts have inevitably generated growing controversy and conflicts. Resolving their role in meeting water and energy needs is vital for the future and illustrates the complex development challenges that face our societies. The Report of the World Commission on Dams: - is the product of an unprecedented global public policy effort to bring governments, the private sector and civil society together in one process - provides the first comprehensive global and independent review of the performance and impacts of dams - presents a new framework for water and energy resources development - develops an agenda of seven strategic priorities with corresponding criteria and guidelines for future decision-making. Challenging our assumptions, the Commission sets before us the hard, rigorous and clear-eyed evidence of exactly why nations decide to build dams and how dams can affect human, plant and animal life, for better or for worse. Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making is vital reading on the future of dams as well as the changing development context where new voices, choices and options leave little room for a business-as-usual scenario.

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Contents

Water and Development 381578
3
1
11
Understanding the Large Dams Debate
17
THE WCD GLOBAL REVIEW OF LARGE DAMS
35
1
39
4
43
6
47
Hydropower Dams
49
Energy and Electricity
148
Water Supply
156
6
158
Findings and Lessons
163
DecisionMaking and the Political Economy of Large Dams
169
Planning and Evaluation
175
5
177
8
185

7
50
8
60
MultiPurpose Dams
62
Ecosystems and Large Dams Environmental
73
1
75
5
82
Floodplain Ecosystems
83
7
88
Anticipating and Responding to Ecosystem Impacts
89
People and Large Dams Social Performance
97
1
101
Indigenous Peoples
105
Downstream Livelihoods
112
4
113
89
116
Human Health
118
2
124
Findings and Lessons
129
Options for Water and Energy Resources
135
1
139
5
145
3
186
Findings and Lessons
190
Enhancing Human Development Rights Risks
197
1
199
Trends and Challenges in Applying the New Development Framework
203
3
207
Conclusion
210
1
260
3
285
A Comment Medha Patkar
321
1
326
1
342
Glossary
344
Reports in the WCD Knowledge Base
359
CRE
361
6
370
8
381
United Nations Declarations
383
A Profile of the WCD Secretariat
397
121
399
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