IRN letter
to ADB on Water Policy revision
June 2, 2004
President Tadao Chino
Asian Development Bank
P.O. Box 789
0980 Manila, Philippines
Dear President Chino:
We, representatives of 34 NGOs from 18 countries, are writing to express
our concern with the proposed revision to ADB’s Water Policy regarding
Large Water Resources Projects and to encourage you to push for modifications
to the text that would bring the policy in line with World Commission
on Dams (WCD) recommendations. The proposed new text significantly waters
down the spirit and intent of the original policy prescription and undermines
the ADB’s commitment to the WCD recommendations. The revision would
contradict the international trend towards recognition of a rights-based
approach to development, and the principle of free, prior and informed
consent.
In a letter from Mr. A. Seki, former Director General of the Bank’s
Regional and Sustainable Development, to IRN dated 9 July 2002, Mr. Seki
stated the following:
“We are still benefiting from the recommendations of the WCD when
developing or revising our relevant policies and practices. An earlier
example was the Water Policy… Please note that actions to implement
the Water Policy are being taken, supported by the Water Fund. ADB will
consider the specific concerns of IRN in the implementation of the Water
Policy with regard to specific projects. When the Water Policy implementation
is reviewed in 2005, ADB will consider the generic concerns of IRN in
any update.”
Given the Bank’s commitment to consider the WCD recommendations
in any update to the Water Policy, we were surprised and disappointed
to see a proposed change to the Water Policy that actually weakens the
policy’s stipulations in relation to gaining public acceptance and
brings it substantially out of line with WCD recommendations. In addition,
we were surprised to see that the interim review of ADB’s Water
Policy Implementation fails to mention the WCD even once.
Therefore, we would like to recommend, in line with ADB’s previous
commitments to
incorporate WCD recommendations into its safeguard policies [Footnote
1], that the proposed paragraph be modified as follows to bring it
in compliance with World Commission on Dams guidelines. In addition, we
expect that the 2005 revision of the Bank’s Water Policy will look
at ways of incorporating other WCD strategic priorities into the Water
Policy, as promised by Mr. Seki. We suggest the following language modification
to the disputed paragraph:
“ADB will adopt a cautious approach to large water resource projects
– particularly those involving dams and storage – given the
record of environmental and social hazards associated with such projects.
All such projects will need to be justified in the public interest, and
decision-making processes and mechanisms should be used that enable informed
participation by all groups of people, and result in the demonstrable
public acceptance of key decisions. Where projects affect indigenous and
tribal peoples, such processes are guided by their free, prior and informed
consent.”
This proposed language comes directly from the WCD’s Strategic
Priority 1 on Gaining Public Acceptance. In recent years, there has been
a growing recognition by the international community that free, prior
and informed consent (FPIC) and other forms of public acceptance are important
principles of development policy [Footnote 2]. Evidence
demonstrates that only such a rights-based approach will allow affected
communities to negotiate satisfactory outcomes of development projects.
For your reference, we enclose Mr. Seki’s letter to International
Rivers Network of 9 July 2002, as well as IRN’s original letter
to President Chino analyzing the ADB’s response to the WCD and suggesting
changes to ADB policies to bring them in line with WCD recommendations.
We hope you will push for this proposed revision when the policy comes
to the Board in July, and we hope you will ensure that the 2005 Water
Policy revision will look at ways of further incorporating WCD guidelines
into the policy.
Sincerely,
AVIVA IMHOF
Director, Southeast Asia Program
International Rivers Network
FOOTNOTES
Footnote 1. In a
letter from Mr. Tadao Chino, President of the ADB, to the Mr. Kadar Asmal,
Chair of the WCD, dated 22 December 2000, Mr. Chino stated that “ADB
will re-examine its own procedures, including our environment and social
development policies, and determine the extent to which the report's recommendations
may necessitate changes in these procedures.”
Footnote 2.
The principle of free, prior and informed consent for indigenous peoples
has been recognized by many legal instruments and development institutions,
including ILO Convention 169, UNDP’s policy on indigenous peoples,
and IDB’s resettlement policy, OP 710. The report of the Extractive
Industries Review (EIR) that was commissioned by the World Bank recommended
the adoption of the FPIC principle for indigenous people and for any other
communities affected by Bank projects. Since the EIR report came out,
the principle has been supported by World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn
and by several member governments of the World Bank. |
