Africa

A sign–on letter urging the head of the IFC to evaluate the Bujagali Dam against WCD guidelines. Peter Woicke Executive Vice President International Finance Corporation 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20433 Rome, December 13, 2000 Re: Bujagali Dam project – Uganda Dear Mr. Woicke: We are writing to you to express our concern about the Bujagali dam project in Uganda, which is currently being considered for funding by the IFC. We have been very closely following developments related to this project and have carefully evaluated its pros and cons as well as the concerns already

Peter Woicke Executive Vice President International Finance Corporation 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20433 Dear Mr. Woicke: I read with interest the article about you in the October 8, 2000 edition of Business Week, in which you say that the proposed Bujagali Dam in Uganda will help the rural poor access electricity and reduce their need for fuelwood. The notion that the Bujagali project itself will lead to widespread rural electrification seems excessively optimistic, and is not supported by World Bank analysis. (Although the Power IV project includes extension of the grid t

Land and water are ecologically linked in a natural system called a watershed. From the smallest droplet to the mightiest river, water works to shape the land, taking with it sediment and dissolved materials that drain to watercourses and, in most cases, eventually to the sea. So, too, is the river a product of the land it inhabits––the type of rock and soil, the shape of the land, and the amount of vegetation are some of the factors that determine the river’s shape, size and flow. When these ties between the land and the river are broken by a large dam, the consequences are felt throu

The U.S.–based AES corporation, the largest independent power producer in the world with assets of $11 billion, is currently in line to receive a partial–risk guarantee from IDA and loans from the IFC to construct a US$520–million dam near Bujagali Falls on the Nile. The dam would create a socially and environmentally destructive reservoir, and would drown the spectacular Bujagali Falls. Worse, the project’s power would not meet the needs of the vast majority of the country’s population. The IFC is currently appraising the project, and is expected to decide within six months whether

For too long, the World Bank has invested in grandiose projects that do little or nothing to help the poor. It’s time for its leaders to abandon the grand vision and embrace a down–to–earth approach. AS THE WORLD’S financial leaders gather in Washington this weekend for the annual meetings of the World Bank, help for Africa will be high on their agenda. Paul Wolfowitz, the bank’s president, has declared Africa and its poorest people to be his top priority. And the decision at the G–8 summit in July to make the bank the main administrator of funds committed to Africa adds weight to