| Sustainability


When asked about what role he thinks hydropower


will play in the clean energy transition, Steiner says that “we have many more alternatives today in terms of power generation and I think that the notion that hydropower is the singular driver of the construction of large dams in the future is in part being overtaken by the economics of other renewable energy sources”. He acknowledges that many countries have a clear challenge with energy storage and it “is something that clearly dams and reservoirs can provide” but “the question is when is it the best option versus other options?” Ultimately large dams will still be built, Steiner says, but hopefully they “will be built out of a very rigorous assessment of all options and in a far more transparent and democratic fashion”. “We often say large dams and hydropower are synonymous but there’s a great deal of hydropower production that does not necessarily involve large scale dams or reservoir systems,” he says. Steiner believes there is significant potential


here, particularly in developing countries, to look at hydropower (such as run-of-river and smaller scale schemes) and view them as stepping stones towards more complex and sophisticated renewable energy infrastructure. We could all invest a great deal more attention, and also resources, in this right now as part of the transition in the climate change debate, he suggests.


Large dams “I still hesitate to arrive at a sort of summary judgement


on dams,” Steiner says. “First of all, you know large dams are less and less likely to be an attractive investment simply because we no longer live in an age where 100-year floods, and many of these hydrological design assumptions that governed a certain degree of predictability, actually hold.” Steiner spoke about his experience of living in Kenya


for ten years. Kenya was significantly dependent on hydropower but with ever more frequent cycles of drought and more uneven rainfall patterns it “clearly could not build its energy economy around hydropower”. It is still a part of the mix but the country has now invested more in geothermal, solar and wind. “I would say that yes the era we are in is going to


make large dams less and less likely but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any large dams that still make sense to build if, and that is a big if, we are able to demonstrate and manage that dam in a way that is compatible with social, environmental and ecological parameters that are not peripheral, but central, to the decision. What will make dam building more difficult in


the future,” he says, “is just the economics.” Reflecting on his work with WCD, Steiner says the


experience “was for me the most intense degree in development studies I have ever done”. He says that a dam, which is basically just a singular structure, is a prism on just about every aspect of development – human rights, economics, hydrology and power pricing etc.


“It’s fascinating,” he says, “how one structure


inserted into a system suddenly becomes a magnifying glass on everything that is implied when we have to make development decisions.” The challenge for dams and development is making the best choices “that are not choices for an elite nor just of experts, but of the generation that now lives with the responsibility to choose and also the generation that will have to live with the consequences of it”. In addition, Steiner believes that development thinking, planning and decision-making have been profoundly shifted by an inter-generational dimension that wasn’t as clearly present 20 or 30 years ago. “I come back to the DNA of the sustainable


development goals. Instead of simply designing power generating infrastructure you also need to think about how are we going to drive economic development? How are we going to reduce poverty and create jobs? How are we going to maintain our ecological and biodiversity assets in a country? Then you start planning a very different set of infrastructure projects and investment paths. And that is the development challenge of our time,” Steiner says, “dealing with complexity but making decisions with a far greater scope to make optimal decisions, hopefully with far fewer people paying a high price or indeed with nature being lost in the process.” ●


Above: Sardar Sarovar Dam in India. The 1990s had seen increasing polarisation and conflict around large dams. The World Bank withdrew from the Sardar Sarovar project in 1993, following fierce opposition from activist groups and an independent review that pointed out flaws in the handling of environmental and social impacts © Hari Mahidhar


References Keynote seminar with Achim Steiner and Professor David Hulme. Water, energy & sustainable development – past, present and future. Sep 28, 2021. http://www.futuredams. org/keynote-seminar- water-energy-sustainable- development-past-present- and-future/


Further information


FutureDAMS is an interdisciplinary research consortium working to improve the planning and governance of integrated water-energy-food-environment systems. The three-year interdisciplinary programme runs until December 2021. www.futuredams.org


The World Commission on Dams was a global environmental governance forum that, from 1998-2000, tried to resolve long-standing controversies between supporters and opponents of large dams. Read IWP&DC’s article by Christopher Schulz from the University of Cambridge in the UK. Published in 2020 it asks if the commission mattered and what have been its impacts and legacies? www.waterpowermagazine.com/features/featurerevisiting-the-debate-on-large- dams-7856450/


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