International Panel For Reviewing Dams Formed
The World Commission on Dams has finally been formed. The Commission will review the efficacy of large dam projects in various countries, including India.
The Commission, which is sponsored by the World Bank and the World Conservation Union, is a representative body comprising business leaders, environmentalists, social activists and experts in the field.
It is chaired by South African water affairs and forestry ministry Kader Asmal and has two Indians Laxmi Chand Jain and Medha Patkar on its 12-member panel.
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Jain is currently the Indian high commissioner to South Africa.
He has been a member of the Planning Commission and a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay award. He was also a member on the government-constituted independent committee, set up to review the Sardar Sarovar dam project. He is the vice-chairman designate of the new body.
Patkar is a prominent environmentalist and the founder of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a movement opposed to the construction of the Narmada dam.
The Commission will formulate norms and guidelines pertaining to construction of large dams.
It may also have to deal with the resettlement and rehabilitation aspects, covering issues like the mode of payment of compensation and the time-period related to the same.
The Commission has to complete its review by the year 2000.
The initiative to set up such a forum was taken at an international seminar on dams in Switzerland in April, 1997.
The Commissions findings may provide an answer to the question whether large dams are necessary and, if they are, what are the safeguards that must be put in place to prevent ecological damage and ensure safety of the local population.
These issues are confronted by the government too.
As the debate on large dams continues to rage, ongoing projects like the Tehri hydro-electricity project and the Sardar Sarovar project are being weighed down by the environment activists agitations.