Building Better Dams: the Past, Present and Future of Dams

Event Type
Bonn Water Lecture

Location / Date
Bonn, 04.02.2020

Center for Development Research of the University of Bonn (ZEF), United Nations Convention on Combat Desertification (UNCCD), German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Eco-Hydrology and Water Resources Management Department of Geography, University of Bonn.

More than 3,700 large dams are planned or under construction worldwide, to service growing demands for energy, irrigation, urban water or flood control. This new generation of dam schemes, most in ‘developing countries’, has the potential to make a significant contribution towards achieving economic growth, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris climate change commitments.

But, maximising the benefits of dams - while minimising the negative social and environmental impacts - remains a great challenge. Professor David Hulme’s presentation was built on insights from the FutureDAMS project and reviewed what had been known about dam-building in developing countries and looked at future prospects. The question was: "Can we learn from past experience or is ‘not learning from experience’ a central feature of decision-making about dams?"

Professor David Hulme is Professor of Development Studies at the University of Manchester where he is Executive Director of the Global Development Institute, CEO of the FutureDAMS research centre and CEO of the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre.

Waltina Scheumann, associate researcher at the DIE, reflected on the lecture against the background of her research on social and environmental norms in dam construction in emerging economies. Ines Dombrowsky, head of DIE’s programme Environmental Governance and Transformation towards Sustainability, moderated the discussion.

Programme

Welcome and Moderation:

• Ines Dombrowsky, Head of Programme "Environmental Governance and Transformation to Sustainability", German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

 Presentation:

• David Hulme, Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester

 Discussant:

• Waltina Scheumann, Associate Researcher, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

Reception

Further information

The FutureDAMS consortium that Professor Hulme leads (www.futuredams.org) is investigating how to establish the knowledge base, tools and an approach to enable dam projects to support resilient and sustainable development in a warming world.

 An overview on DIE’s water expertise is available here: https://www.die-gdi.de/en/nexus/

About the Water Lecture

The Water Lecture series is a joint series organised by the Center for Development Research of the University of Bonn (ZEF), the United Nations Convention on Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) and the Eco-Hydrology and Water Resources Management Department of Geography, University of Bonn.

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