Water

Dams and Development E-Paper Contents

p. -1 of 74 BACK | NEXT Home Page of Dams and Development Foreword I. Why an e-paper on dams and development? II. Assessing options III. Participatory processes IV. Social impacts V. Environmental impacts VI. Benefit distribution VII. Dam safety and sustainability VIII. Existing projects IX. Improving governance X. What other organizations say XI. ADB, Dams, and Development XII. References Contact Us

World Commission on Dams - project benefit-sharing mechanisms

Assessing the distribution of benefits (and costs) at the options assessment stage and introducing a more equitable distribution of project benefits into project design formed key principles of the WCD 'Rights and Risks' framework.

Policy principle 5.4 of WCD Strategic Priority #5 stresses the importance of striving for a win-win solution:

'Adversely affected people are recognised as first among beneficiaries of the project. Mutually agreed and legally protected benefit-sharing mechanisms are negotiated to ensure implementation'.

Examples of benefits that can be shared are given in Guideline #20 and include:

• Project Benefit-Related: Provision of irrigated land or an opportunity to purchase irrigated land, access to irrigation water, provision of electricity supply, domestic water supply from the project as appropriate. Right to reservoir fisheries, cultivation in the drawdown area of the reservoir, and contract to manage recreational/water transport facilities.
• Project Construction and Operation-Related: Employment in construction, plant operation, and service sector of the project. Financial and training support for self-employment contract to provide goods and services.
• Resource-Related: Preferential access to, or custodianship of, catchment resources for defined exploitation and management purposes, catchment development such as planting fruit trees or reforestation, access to pumped irrigation from the reservoir, and benefits from managed flows and floods.
• Community Services-Related: Provision of better and higher levels of service including health, education, roads and public transport, and drainage; income support for vulnerable or needy households; agricultural support services including preferential planting materials and other inputs; community forests and grazing areas; market and meeting spaces.
• Household-Related: Skills training and interim family support; interest-free loans for economic activities, housing improvements, provision of start-up livestock, access to public works or work for wages, free or subsidised labour-saving devices or productive machinery, access to preferential electricity rates, tax rates, water and service charges.

WCD noted that the following aspects needed to be addressed:

• Definition of beneficiaries
• Identification of beneficiaries
• Eligibility and Level of Benefits
• Benefit Delivery and Redress Mechanisms

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