Africa/Global: NGOs Shut Out of UN Hydropower Conference

Sheltered inside the confines of the Beijing International Convention Center, hundreds of hydropower advocates and a smattering of damaffected people and their allies gathered on a crisp October morning for a three-day United Nations Symposium on Hydropower and Sustainable Development. The organizers – the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), China’s National Development and Reform Commission, and the World Bank – claimed to want to facilitate a discussion among a wide range of participants on the role and future of hydropower in sustainable development. However, the conference was so biased toward hydropower proponents that the meeting was more like an industry workshop than a true exchange of ideas as promoted by the World Commission on Dams. Perspectives critical of hydropower were virtually excluded and the participation of NGOs and dam-affected people was marginalized, reports the World Rivers Review, published by the International Rivers Network.