Guidelines by World Commission on Dams as seen from Japanese Dam Projects in the Past

The World Commission on Dams (WCD) in November 2000 published "Dams and Development" as its only and final report. The report proposed "internationally acceptable criteria and standards" Despite the (act that the WCD itself did not regard the report as a blue print, many NGO's strongly support the report and the guidelines, and demand that they be adopted in their current form by funding organizations. The WCD recommendations and guidelines were found to have several "generic" problems, and the proposed guidelines appear unable to be applied as they stand. The authors assume that only several of these guidelines are operational and many of these are either too experimental or theoretical to be put into use. Furthermore, some seemingly "ready for operation" guidelines still need to be enhanced to be really operational in the real world. About 2,000 large dams were constructed in Japan after the Second World War. Various principles and mechanisms were then developed to better address the issues related to involuntary resettlement. The knowledge accumulated through large dam construction projects in Japan may be applied to other countries. The aim of this paper is to identify the lessons, out of the experiences gained in Japan through large dam construction projects in the past, which could be applicable for future large dam construction projects in other nations. The socio-economic settings as well as legal frameworks in Japan may differ other nation. Nevertheless, the following aspects of the experiences gained in Japan are found to be both applicable and useful for future large dam construction projects abroad: (a) Integrity of community in the negotiation process, (b) Provision of alternative occupations, (c) Funding mechanism in the post-project period, (d) Measures needed during planning process, and (e) Making resettlers "shareholders". These lessons may prove useful to enhance the WCD guidelines.