US Can Help Stop Brewing Water Wars
Instead, the bank maintains a water portfolio laden with huge,
old–style water schemes. At minimum, such projects typically fail
to solve the inequities in water distribution that spark water
conflicts. In regions where most people have no access to fresh
water and cannot afford the water from costly big dams, these
projects can
actually make things worse.
In September, a massive World Bank–funded water project in
the African nation of Lesotho helped spark precisely the type
of armed confrontation water experts
predict. South African troops
invaded Lesotho – a tiny independent mountain kingdom located
within South Africa – ostensibly to quell public protests against
the lack of democratic reforms. But
newspapers in the region reported
that protection of the South African–built Lesotho Highlands Water
Project – which pipes water from Lesotho into South Africa’s arid
industrial heartland – was a major
military priority. What has
been called the region’s "first water war" left 17 people
dead nearone of the project’s dams, and dozens more in and around
the capital.
The project has been fraught with social problems from the beginning. So far, two of the project’s five proposed dams have received their key World Bank funding.
The just–completed 182–meter–high Katse Dam
is the tallest
in Africa, while the proposed 145–meter Mohale Dam will flood
some of the most fertile land in Lesotho, where agricultural land
is extremely scarce and food security a serious issue.
Local people
have lost their land, access to water, and often their homes with
little or no compensation. With water shortages already forecast
for Lesotho, the reservoirs will become an increasingly
cruel
taunt.
Meanwhile, huge project costs have nearly doubled water prices
in South Africa’s most populous region, putting it out of reach
of the poor blacks already suffering from water
inequities created
under apartheid.
Who are the beneficiaries? A clue came at a recent awards ceremony
recognizing the project’s "exemplary and excellent use of
concrete." The
Lesotho official in charge of the project
called Katse Dam a "symbol of partnership between the project
sponsors and the construction fraternity."
Unfortunately, the Lesotho
Highlands project is far from unique
among World Bank water–development schemes. In the past few years,
nearly half of the bank’s water–sector loans have been for large–scale
infrastructure projects,
while small–scale irrigation and watershed
management and conservation remain a tiny slice of the pie at
less than 6 percent of total water lending.
The bank’s recent lending patterns
show a disturbing resistance
to experts’ growing emphasis on sustainable water management.
The institution has endured years of criticism over its support
for more than 600 large dam projects that have
created huge environmental
and social costs while also contributing to the inequitable distribution
of water and power.
This prejudice toward big infrastructure projects promotes
unsustainable, inequitable water–management – in short, the perfect
setting for future water wars. The World Bank urgently needs to
reverse its approach to water management to one that will help
avert
rather than worsen the world’s growing water crisis.
The United States, the largest World Bank donor, should request an in–depth evaluation of the Lesotho project and the bank’s approach to water resources development. This would provide valuable lessons about more effective uses of public funds to help the poor and protect the environment. These lessons are critical to reducing the risks of future international water wars.