Address on the occasion of the Launch of the Final Report of
the World Commission on Dams

16 November 2000, in Cabot Hall, London

Friends
Honoured Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

It really gives me great pleasure to be present at and participate in this
occasion of the launch of the report of the World Commission on Dams.

This is not least so because of the strange phenomenon of the Minister of
Education from a certain country far down south on the African continent
chairing this World Commission on Dams.

That might surprise some, but those who know the man - as I am sure the
members of the Commission have come to do - will testify that his energy, drive
and abundant natural intelligence equip him excellently to give leadership in
such a project.

And after all, I may add, Kader Asmal was Minister of Water Affairs and
Forestry in the South African Cabinet - a position and portfolio in which he
excelled. Not only did he bring much needed services such as clean running water
to millions of people previously deprived of such basics; he succeeded in
planting in the national consciousness an unprecedented awareness of the vital
importance of water as scarce and depletable resource.

He has in the meantime, now that I have become an unemployed pensioner and he
a Minister of Education, deserted me. It is therefore good to be able to catch
up with him again here in London!

I am aware that the issue of dams and their benefits and impacts has become
one of the battlegrounds in the sustainable development arena. The establishment
of the Commission was well timed and its report will certainly be an important
contribution to those debates and our understanding of them.

We are here today, in large part, to answer the questions: Who really needs
the work of the World Commission on Dams? Who is their Report written for? There
are some who may say it can only target a very narrow readership; a few thousand
specialists in the ir field, at most. Yet from my brief introduction to the
Report it has become clear what is at stake and how it can help all of us
resolve potentially explosive tensions together. For it involves the careful use
of our collective life support systems, the rivers entrusted to us as stewards
of nature.

We in South Africa have ourselves faced hard questions and had to make hard
choices in this regard. We knew that political freedom alone is still not enough
if you lack clean water. Freedom alone is not enough without light to read at
night, without time o r access to water to irrigate your farm, without the
ability to catch fish to feed your family.

For this reason the struggle for sustainable development nearly equals the
struggle for political freedom. They can grow together or they can unravel each
other. Threats to our governments in the century ahead will come from poverty,
if anything.

Our largest city, Johannesburg, was not founded on the banks of a flowing
river. It is nowhere near a large river. Which meant that we had to bring water
to the people from the closest viable source in order to address one of the key
needs in poverty allev iation and the creation of decent living conditions.

That source sprang from the highlands of neighbouring Lesotho. We needed more
water for Johannesburg; Lesotho needed electricity for its rural peoples. To do
so, one answer was one of the most significant water development projects in the
Southern Hemisphe re. It meant authorisation of another large dam!

We knew the controversy and complexities of such an undertaking and had to
carefully negotiate the political minefields and legal challenges, taking into
consideration environmental, financial, social and economic impacts. A dam - a
means to an end - which was one option among others, emerged as our best option
under the circumstances.

Was it our best tool? Were other options overlooked? Perhaps. I believe ours
was the right choice at the time. But no one knew for sure. There is a part of
me, and I believe of my then Minister of Water Affairs, that resented having to
choose the lesser of two evils: relocate some so that all may have water, or
forgo a dam, thus slowing human development and increasing urban stress.

It is not easy to be inside of the process, making decisions that would
affect the lives of millions and for decades to come. The guidance that one
could henceforth seek from the Report of a World Commission would be invaluable.

For the question remains: how do we eradicate poverty with attention to this
crucial life supporting system? Some say large dams offer solutions; others say
large dams create problems. The Commission, as I understand from its Report, to
its credit says nei ther.

It simply distils the evidence of the performance of dams in the past, in
which dams, on balance, have delivered significant benefits for the many. But
the overall performance and impacts of dams present us with a more complex and
often bleak picture, espe cially for the unspoken minority, and for nature.

But unlike many critics of dams, the Commission is not quick to point
fingers. For it recognises that while there must be greater accountability, it
is too easy and not too productive to simply blame the industries that build,
the governments that authoris e, the agencies that fund, the engineers who
design the large dam.

The problem, though, is not the dams. It is the hunger. It is the thirst. It
is the darkness of a township. It is townships and rural huts without running
water, lights or sanitation. It is the time wasted gathering water by hand.
There is a real pressing need for power in every sense of the word. Rather than
single out dams for excessive blame, or credit, we must learn to answer: "It is
all of us!" All of us must wrestle with the difficult questions we face.

And this Report provides answers and assistance for it was written by those
who wrestled together for more than two years. The time and energy they spent
wrestling with these questions save time, energy, sweat and money for the rest
of us.

We thank you for your hard work. We congratulate you on the quality of your
Report. We commend you for the way you created space for dialogue, mutual
understanding and ultimately mutual respect and understanding amongst the
parties to the dams debate and c onflicts. You have shown us the way forward for
dealing with such complex issues.

I thank you.

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