Follow the Money / Statement-Declarations

The outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development will do nothing to halt the rapid degradation of the world's rivers and the impoverishment of the communities who directly depend on them. Rampant dam building, pollution, bad farming practices, channelization, deforestation, urban sprawl, and climate change are sickening the rivers of the world. The agreements made at the WSSD at best fail to rein in the forces destroying rivers, and at worst encourage them.

The report of the World Commission on Water (WCW) is a restatement of tired orthodoxies from the international water establishment and should be rejected by the water ministers who will meet in The Hague on 21–22 March. The report, written by the WCW Chairman and World Bank Vice–President Ismail Serageldin, is merely old water in a new bottle.

WHEREAS:

1. The World Bank is the greatest single source of funds for large dam construction, having provided more than U.S.$50 billion (1992 dollars) for construction of more than 500 large dams in 92 countries. Despite this enormous investment, no independent analysis or evidence exists to demonstrate that the financial, social and environmental costs were justified by the benefits realized;