UNITED NATIONS: World Forum charged with helping to destroy world’s rivers

By Pratap Chatterjee Reprint | | Print |

Pratap Chatterjee

WASHINGTON, Jun 24 1995 (IPS) - Senior United Nations officials flying to San Francisco this week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the accord that created the world body will probably not be amused when they are handed a two-page flyer entitled “Unsustainable Development Programme” with the logo of their largest agency.

The unofficial title has the same acronym as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Activists from the International Rivers Network (IRN) here have chosen the new name because they say it describes the agency much better.

“We produced this flyer to describe UNDP’s latest plans and to tell people about its dismal past history of supporting some of the largest and most environmentally and socially destructive projects in the world,” says Owen Lammers, IRN’s executive director.

The New York-based agency is currently funding projects to develop three strategic waterways — the Tumen river in north-east Asia, the Paraguay-Parana rivers in South America, and the Mekong river in Southeast Asia.

Governments in these three regions not only want to develop the waterways into major trade routes for the export of commodities like timber and oil. They also want to harness the rivers to generate hydro-electric power. These plans will have devastating environmental and social effects, says IRN.

UNDP has paid for feasibility studies to promote the development of each of these regions. Such studies form an essential part of the agency’s work. UNDP gives away about 1.4 billion dollars a year through its 130 offices around the world to fund activities described as “sustainable development.”

In the past, UNDP studies were used to plan the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river in India and the Mahaweli dams in Sri Lanka. Both schemes were subsequently funded through World Bank loans. Recent internal Bank studies admit that the environmental impact of both schemes were devastating.

“Environmental aspects were neglected. Economic returns were lower than expected, farmers remain dependent on the government, and maintenance has been inadequately managed and funded,” say the authors of the performance audit report on the Bank’s funding of the Mahaweli project, which lasted from 1982 to 1992.

But IRN says that UNDP continues to promote similar schemes all over the world. For example, a December 1994 study, paid for by UNDP, recommends transforming the Mekong River, which runs through southeast Asia, into a “staircase” of reservoirs.