Endorsed
at the Second International Meeting of
Dam Affected People and their Allies,
Rasi Salai, Thailand, 28 November - 4 December 2003
THE INSPIRATION OF RASI SALAI
We, more than 300 people from 62 countries throughout the world, peoples
affected by dams, fighters against destructive dams, and activists
for sustainable and equitable water and energy management, have met
in Rasi Salai. We have met on land that is being restored to life
after being flooded by a dam. The gates of the dam are now open, the
river flows, the crops have ripened, the fish are starting to return,
community life is becoming vibrant once more. The dam-affected people
of Thailand offer to us and to all peoples an example of determination
and struggle to preserve lives, rivers, territories, culture, and
identities.
Water for life,
not for death! The call made at the First International Meeting of
People Affected by Dams, held in Curitiba, Brazil, 1997, has been
realised in Rasi Salai, Thailand.
OUR ACHIEVEMENTS
Since Curitiba,
we have made significant progress in our struggles. In the valleys,
mobilisation and direct action of affected peoples has challenged
the dam industry, governments, and financial institutions. The international
movement against destructive dams has shown its ability to challenge
the industry in the technical, political and moral spheres. We have
stopped and decommissioned some dams. In some areas we have achieved
recognition of the right to just reparation.
Affected and
threatened peoples and allies have exercised decisive participation
in decision-making processes, and in determining our own futures.
We are successfully
implementing socially and environmentally just and effective community-based
water management. We support the rapid advances in new renewable energy
technologies and methods of demand-side management.
This extraordinary
growth in our struggle is also made possible by ever stronger ties
between indigenous peoples, grassroots movements and NGOs, and between
Southern and Northern civil society. We have also joined in solidarity
with the global struggle against neoliberalism and for a just and
equitable world.
The World Commission
on Dams process is a key achievement of the last six years. The WCD
report is strongly critical of large dams. While their report does
not question the fundamental flaws of the neo-liberal development
model, the WCD's recommendations constitute a framework for democratic,
transparent and accountable decision-making processes.
OUR CHALLENGES
In the past,
we were told that large dams bring development. Now the dam lobby
claims that large dams are essential to "alleviate" poverty
and close the gap between South and North. The last 50 years has shown
this to be a fraud. The global large dam era has been marked by a
sharply growing and unacceptable inequality between South and North,
and between rich and poor.
We denounce the
fallacy that hydropower and large dams are essential to slow global
warming and adapt to its impacts.
Indigenous peoples
have been disproportionately harmed by the targeting of their territories,
lands, and resources. The use of violence, including by the military,
to implement these projects violates their human rights and threatens
their survival.
Privatisation
continues to spread, despite more than a decade of spectacular failures
worldwide. We strongly oppose privatisation which subordinates life-giving
water and rivers to corporate interests and the logic of the market.
The proposed
interlinking of rivers, inter-basin transfers and transnational infrastructure
initiatives based on water megaprojects show the incapacity of dam
promoters to learn from the impacts and failures of these grandiose
schemes.
The transfer
of energy-intensive industries such as aluminium from North to South,
from the central to peripheral countries, imposes on the latter high
economic costs, the growth of external debt, and the huge impacts
of megadams.
OUR DEMANDS
Our shared experiences
and our five days of rich exchanges have led us to agree:
*We affirm the
principles and demands of the Curitiba Declaration of 1997;
* We oppose the
construction of all socially and environmentally destructive dams.
We oppose the construction of any dam which has not been approved
by the affected peoples after an informed and participatory decision-making
process, and that does not meet community-prioritized needs;
* We demand full
respect for indigenous peoples' knowledge, customary resource management
and territories and their collective rights to self-determination
and free, prior and informed consent in water and energy planning
and decision-making;
* Gender equity
must be upheld in all water and energy policies, programmes and projects;
* There must
be a halt to the use of all forms of violence, intimidation and military
intervention against peoples affected and threatened by dams and organisations
opposing dams;
* Reparations
must be made through negotiations to the millions who have suffered
because of dams, including through the provision of funds, adequate
land, housing and social infrastructure. Dam funders and developers
and those who profit from dams should bear the cost of reparations;
* Actions, including
decommissioning, must be taken to restore ecosystems and livelihoods
damaged by dams and to safeguard riverine ecological diversity;
* We reject privatisation
of the power and water sectors. We demand democratic, accountable
and effective public control and appropriate regulation of electricity
and water utilities;
* Governments,
funding institutions, export credit agencies and corporations must
comply with the recommendations of the WCD, in particular those on
public acceptance and informed consent, reparations and existing dams,
ecosystems and needs and options assessments. These recommendations
should be incorporated into national policies and laws and regional
initiatives;
* Governments
must ensure investments in research and application of just and sustainable
energy technologies and water management. Governments must implement
policies which discourage waste and over consumption and guarantee
equitable distribution of wealth;
* The construction
of interbasin transfer schemes, river inter-linking and other water
megaprojects must halt;
* The international
carbon market must be eliminated;
* Waterways for
navigation should follow the principle "adapt the boat to the
river, not the river to the boat."
We commit ourselves
to:
* Intensifying
our struggles and campaigns against destructive dams and for reparations
and river and watershed restoration;
* Working to
implement worldwide sustainable and appropriate methods of water and
energy management such as rainwater harvesting and community-managed
renewable energy schemes;
* Continuous
renewal and vitalization of diverse water knowledge and traditions
through practical learning especially for our children and youth;
* Intensifying
exchanges between activists and movements working on dams, water and
energy, including through reciprocal visits of affected peoples from
different countries;
* Strengthening
our movements by joining with others struggling against the neo-liberal
development model and for global social and ecological justice;
* Celebrate each
year the International Day of Action Against Dams and for Rivers,
Water and Life (March 14).
We call upon
the dam-affected peoples' movements and their allies and other social
movements and NGOs to coordinate common actions on March 14, 2004,
which protest the World Bank, in solidarity with the protests against
the World Bank and IMF on their 60th anniversary.
Our struggle
against destructive dams and the current model of water and energy
management is also a struggle against a social order dominated by
the imperative to maximize profits, and is a struggle based on equity
and solidarity.
Another model of energy and water management is possible!
WATER FOR LIFE,
NOT FOR DEATH!
To the Webpage " The
international Anti Dam Movement"
