Call for papers

Special issue: WCD+10: Revisiting the Large Dam Controversy

Large dams - over 15 m tall or with a capacity over 3 million m3- total roughly 50,000 worldwide, not considering millions of smaller dams and reservoirs. Few rivers remain that have been untouched by some type of dam. As stated by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) nearly ten years ago, “Dams have made an important and significant contribution to human development, and the benefits derived from them have been considerable. In too many cases an unacceptable and often unnecessary price has been paid to secure those benefits, especially in social and environmental terms, by people displaced, by communities downstream, by taxpayers and by the natural environment.” The WCD – an independent, international commission comprised of leaders from all sides of the debate surrounding big dams – issued its report in 2000 with findings about the development effectiveness of large dams globally and proposed guidelines for improving dam performance and governance, including -among others- principles of participation, equity, transparency and comprehensive option assessment. Ten years later, this special issue of Water Alternatives will look at the influence and the impact of the WCD on dam construction and the practice of various main actors: financiers, construction companies, bureaucracies, developers or the civil society.
Despite the WCD process, the legacies and controversies of large dams remain: the conflict between providing hydropower, water supply, flood control, irrigation and other benefits to some while devastating the basic rights and livelihoods of others, and damaging shared rivers and ecosystems. Dams may control floods and regulate irregular water regimes, generate hydropower, provide storage for domestic, industrial or agricultural use, or allow the development of recreation. But these benefits are not well distributed socially, often favouring urban dwellers, industries and certain types of farmers disproportionally; and they come with large social and environmental costs that have long been overlooked. Displaced populations, totalling at least 60 million, have frequently been resettled with minimal or no compensation, often in marginal lands, and in the overwhelming majority have become and remained poorer. Large scale alteration of natural hydrologic regimes has had massive impacts on fisheries, water-based livelihoods, aquatic ecosystems and environmental services as a whole. Some scientists also believe that many dams generate large amounts of greenhouse gas, up to 5% of all human-induced GHG emissions. Civic movements emerged in the 1990s to protest the impacts of large scale dam projects and demand consultation and compensation. These movements and a number of national and international NGOs stalled a number of projects and prompted global efforts at improving dam project decision-making processes. Prominent among these efforts was the World Commission on Dams (WCD).

What has happened in the decade since the WCD report was published? While social and environmental costs and risks are better understood and dam construction has significantly slowed down in the past decade, several changes have recently emerged. Energy demand and the price of fossil fuel have prompted a renewed interest in hydropower; traditional development banks and developers have been increasingly challenged by competitors from emergent countries; while opponents have also become more sophisticated in their modes of action. An upsurge of dam projects has been witnessed during the past five years (but the recent global economic meltdown might temporarily reverse this trend). Does the governance of these projects show substantial progress compared with earlier decades? Has the performance of dams improved? Has the WCD instilled a new ethics and greater consideration of social and environmental impacts? What are the prospects for advancing in a debate that remains very polarized?

This special issue, targeted for the June 2010 issue of Water Alternatives, will include a number of articles, some written by authors chosen by the editors, others selected among proposals to a call for papers. The overarching questions we would like to explore in this issue are: What has changed in the dams and development arena in the last decade, and is the WCD still relevant?

While the call for papers is open the following issues are suggested:

Generic issues

• Ten years later: what has the WCD changed?
• The WCD process and outcomes
• Follow up to the WCD and civil society-initiated national dialogues
• Trends in dam building worldwide: justifications, actors, governance, contestations
• Dams, resettlements and social risks
• Dams and the environment
• Dams and the special case of indigenous peoples
• Codes of conducts: financiers and developers
• Dams and development banks evolving policies
• Dams and climate change
• Dams, civil society, advocacy, democratization
• Experience with non-dam alternatives for water supply and management
• The performance of existing dams: has management been improved?
• The EU's Linking Directive and the WCD framework

Case studies

• Regional case studies (e.g. Mekong, Nile, etc)
• Dam case studies
• Looking back at early dams (e.g. Assuan, Akosombo, Itaipu, etc)

Guest editors

Deborah Moore (Former WCD commissioner), John Dore (AusAid)

Important dates

• Call for papers (detailed abstracts): May 2009
• End of call: 30 June 2009
• Final selection of abstracts: 30 July 2009
• Submission of final papers: 15 November 2009
• Review Process: until 15 February 2010
• Final selection and revisions: until 31 March 2010
• Editing/copyediting/formatting and publishing : 1 June 2010