Press Responses : Monday, April 14, 2003
Introduction:
Crews in China were scheduled to begin flooding the reservoir last week for the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. It's the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River. Fraser Reilly-King works for the Halifax Initiative, a coalition of human rights, labour, faith and environment groups that speak out on issues of world poverty and the environment. On Commentary he says Canada should have attached strings to it's contribution to the dam.
Fraser Reilly-King:
The Three Gorges reservoir will be enormous. Thirty thousand hectares of arable land will totally disappear under water, along with 19-cities and more than 300-towns.
By the time the dam is completed in 2013, up to 1.9 million people will have been forcibly displaced - the largest forced displacement for an engineering project ever recorded.
China's resettlement record has been abysmal. Compensation packages are profoundly inadequate. Land and promised jobs are no longer available. Many local officials have used funds from the resettlement budget to line their pockets, while street protests have been put down with excessive police violence and imprisonment.
In January, International Rivers Network with the Canadian NGO I work for, the Halifax Initiative, issued an investigative report. It asked the governments involved in funding Three Gorges to demand that China postpone filling the reservoir until the resettlement problems are dealt with.
So how has Canada responded? Somewhat confusedly with two agencies passing the buck.
Export Development Canada or EDC, which promotes Canadian trade around the world, provided $165 million US for Three Gorges. The money bought a supercomputer, and six turbines and generators for the dam. EDC claimed its contribution was 'minor' considering the project's overall budget of 25- billion dollars. How could it have much influence influence on the resettlement program? Besides, business is our bag. Not human rights! Go talk to Foreign Affairs!
Foreign Affairs threw the ball right back at EDC. It said EDC's Environmental process approved in 2001 should deal with the social and environmental impacts of projects like Three Gorges. Of course, no one mentioned the policy isn't retroactive. Oh, so too bad for those 1.9 million people.
While it now looks like the Three Gorges submergence will go ahead - no thanks to Canada - there is a way to make sure fiascos like this don't happen again.
A comprehensive planning process has been developed through the World Commission on Dams. The Commission established a framework that integrates human rights into water and energy projects. It promotes open and transparent negotiations that involve all stakeholders, and establishes clear mechanisms for remedying social problems.
EDC currently has no such guarantees in its environmental framework, and only marginally addresses human rights impacts. It would do well to adopt the plan developed by the World Commission on Dams. The bottom line is Export Development Canada must conduct human rights and social impact assessments on projects it is considering funding.
As of today, there are now at least 1.9 million reasons why it should do so.
For Commentary, I'm Fraser Reilly-King in Ottawa.
