Kyoto
Congress
is a success :a new African President for ICOLD
and a World Declaration launched !

Hydropower and dams’ positive roleis now widely recognized

CONTENTS:
Sucessful
Congressin Kyoto

P.2

6th WWF stresses
Water Food
EnergyP.4

The WCD
questionin MarseilleP.5

WD water storage forsunstaible
development
P.6
Central Europe
goes for PSP

P.9

ICOLD
regional Clubs

P.10

Above : elected President Adama Nombre and congress inKyoto. Below : ICOLD President and Secretary General withICID and IWRA representatives proudly present the World
Declaration during ICOLD Congress in Kyoto.

It’s a new golden age for the dams community.
During the 90s some western nations andinstitutions seemed to have forgotten the
major role dams played for their development.
Although there were some lawful critics of thedams negative social impact, the dams positive
impact on economy and development was completely put on the side.
In major emerging countries, like China,
Brazil or India, there was no debate: dams wereconsidered as a crucial tool for development
and betterment of the standard of living in theworld.
Things have changed: major western institutions, like the World Bank and the Worldwatch
Institute, now recognize the role of dams fordevelopment. In the 6th World Water Forumthat has been widely recognized, to the pointthat the perennial dam opponents were obliged
to adopt a defensive attitude. The 6th World
Water Forum has recognized something ICOLD
always defended in explaining the multipurpose
nature of the reservoirs: the Water-Food-Energy
nexus. (see page 4)
Reflecting this new political reality, a total of$40-45 billion was invested in large hydropower
projects worldwide in 2010. The global use ofhydropower increased more than 5 percent
between 2009 and 2010. Hydropower use
reached a record 3,427 terawatt-hours, or about
16.1 percent of global electricity consumption,by the end of 2010, continuing the rapid rate ofincrease experienced between 2003 and 2009.
In its last Vital Signs Online publication, theWorldwatch Institute, a NGO not especiallyin favor of dams, was obliged to recognize
the advantages of hydropower: “The costof hydropower is relatively low, making it acompetitive source of renewable electricity. The
average cost of electricity from a hydro plantlarger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5 U.S. cents
per kilowatt-hour. Hydropower is also a flexible
source of electricity since plants can be ramped
up and down very quickly to adapt to changing
energy demands.” The WWI of course goesin depth in the critics of environmental impactof dams but concludes that : “In the future,hydropower is likely to continue to grow---despite the environmental challenges involvedin expanding it----because of its competitive
price and climate benefits, which make it an
attractive option as countries seek to lower theirgreenhouse gas emissions.”

Even the dam critics are recognizing it: it’sa new era for dam building. ICOLD will continue to do its best to serve those experts whowant to use the best available knowledge andtechnology to build dams for the sustainable
developmentof their nations.
Michel de Vivo, Secretary GeneralSuccessful
Congressin Kyoto
1350 participants from 69 countries with many young engineers, a World Declaration issued,
ICOLD 25th Congress has been a resounding success in the framework of a global recognitionof the need for Water Storage.

T

he 25th Congress of ICOLD took placein Kyoto, Japan, from June 4th to June 8th.
It was a resounding success with a highattendance of 1367 participants coming from 70
countries, including 208 accompanying persons
and 110 young engineers.
Given the economic crisis that the world isfacing since 2008, given the distance and the cost
endured by the trip and despite the consequencesof the terrible tsunami which hit the country in 2011,
Japan attracted many delegates to ICOLD Kyoto
Congress because of its technological knowhow
but also for its history and its culture.
Last but not least, everybody could check forhimself the famous Japanese hospitality !

A World Declaration on Water Storage
One of the high points of the meeting was theissuance of the “World Declaration on Water
Storage for Sustainable Development”, also signedby the International Commission on Irrigation andDrainage, the International Hydropower Associationand the International Water Resources Association.
The signers take into account the challenges of thedecades to come, because of continuously increasing
demands of water, food and energy that will challenge
the natural resources. The Declaration states that
“Humanity is facing a more severe water situation
than it has ever faced in the past” and calls for “Joint
efforts to develop water storage infrastructure in asustainable way.” For the full text of the Declaration,
see page 6/7.
1200 people participated to the Symposium
organized by the Japanese Committee on the2} T h e

D A M S

theme “Dams for a changing world”, which drew
112 oral presentations on June 5th. Among the 251
accepted papers, 31 came were presented by young
engineers. 59 companies and organizations were
present at the technical exhibition center during thewhole Congress.

A new President from Africa
During the General Assembly, Mr. Adama
Nombre, from Burkina Faso, has been elected
President for the next three years. It is the first time
ICOLD has a President coming from sub-SaharanAfrica (except for Mr. Van Robbroeck, from South
Africa, who was President in 1994-1997) and it ishighly symbolic. Coming from a region where waterand energy needs are the most acute in the world,
Mr. Nombre is passionately engaged in matters ofsustainable development and eager to explain to
the world the benefits of dams for development.
Two new vice-President were also elected:
Mr. Anton Schleiss (Switzerland) for the Europeanzone and Mr. Gerrit Basson (South Africa), for the
African zone.
Norway was elected as the hosting country for
ICOLD 26th Congress, which will take place inStavanger in June 2015. Indonesia was elected tohost the 82nd annual meeting in Bali (June 2014)

Educating for the future
During the Congress, ICOLD had prepared a
Forum for Young Engineers in order to promote
the participation of younger generations. The firstN e w s l e t t e r

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Golden Temple in Kyoto

edition of the Forum was extremely successful
with 60 participants. Awards were given to thethree winners of the competition, organized by theJapanese Organizing Committee, among the young
engineers presenting papers at the Symposium(Dams for a changing world). The award consistedof a very nice Medal and the free participation to
ICOLD’s next annual meeting, offered by JCOLD.
In expectation of the next meeting in Seattle, theYoung Engineers Forum will prepare their terms ofreference, taking into account the feedback of the
Kyoto meeting. Vice-President Alessandro Pujol
and the Secretary General will supervise the YEF
activities.
During the press conference, ICOLD departing
President Jia Jinsheng stressed that investing inreservoirs was investment in the green economy.
Secretary General Michel De Vivo insisted on
the importance of educating engineers for what
he called a “new golden age for dams”. He
explained that there is now a new goal for ICOLD:
to encourage Universities to educate qualified
engineers for tomorrow’s tasks.		

High level people participated at the Congress. Their presence demonstrates that more and more countries and international organisations
are showing a great interest in the activities and initiatives of ICOLD.
J apanese Senior Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism,
Mr K. Okuda,
Governor of Kyoto Prefecture, Mr K. Yamada,
Mayor of Kyoto City, Mr D. Kadokawa,
Chairman of Kansai Economic Federation, Mr S. Mori,
Sister International Organisations such as ICID and IWRA,
Several Prestigious International Institutions such as the World Bank,
National & International media representatives.

Bank Alessandro Palmieri (right) exchanges
with Vice-Minister K. Okuda during the Opening Ceremony

International Conference Center from Kyoto was the beautiful
venue for the Congress.

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6th World Water Forum stresses

Water-Food-Energy nexusT

he 6th World Water Forum was held
during 12 to 17 March at the French cityof Marseille. 35 000 delegates from 60
countries attended the mega event, which wasorganized at the magnificent ‘Parc Chanot’ venue
by the World Water Council in cooperation with
French Government.

An official dinner was co-organized by
CHICOLD and the Central Office to welcome
the Chinese delegation, headed by HE Minister
Chen Lei. Representatives of the French
Government, ICID, IHA and the City of Marseilleparticipated to this event, as well as EDF’s
hydropower boss.

As an elected governor of the World Water
Council, ICOLD played a key role in organizing
this Forum. President Jia and Secretary Generalalso participated in all the events pertaining to
the WWF6, including the opening and closing
ceremonies, the different Board meetings, etc.

Through those focused sessions, ICOLD
has reached the bulk of the community ofwater professionals interested in the questionof storage. But ICOLD message was also
conveyed to the public through very large
pavilions like EDF’s or Suez’s or the Three
Gorges Company’s, which all had material
to demonstrate the interest of multipurpose
water storage infrastructure for sustainable
development.

ICOLD participated in the organization ofdifferent sessions, including a session with ICID on
the target 2-2-5, “Securing World Food Supplies
Through Increased Water Storage Systems”
and a session with IHA on target 2.3.5, “TheHydropower Power Sustainability Assessment
Protocol: A Global Framework to Promote Best
Practice”. President Jia spoke during that session.
ICOLD also organized its own “Special Focus
Session on Water Storage for Sustainable
development”, on Friday 16th. Those “special
focus sessions” had great policy weight and avery high visibility in the forum.

ICOLD President Jia Jinsheng and Secretary
General Michel De Vivo during the 6th World
Water Forum4} T h e

D A M S

Forum provided an excellent platform for all tomeet experts from several countries, listen, andlearn from experiences on various thematic areasof the Forum. The whole event was marked bya theme that has been promoted by ICOLD fora long time: there is a water-food-energy nexus
and integrated solutions like multipurpose water
storage infrastructure are needed. You cannot
solve one problem without thinking of the othersides of the problem.		

A general view of the high level session organized by ICOLD during theForum

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WCD questionin MarseilleThe

Is the era of the World Commission on Dams definitely belonging to the past ?

6th World Water Forum in Marseille: the WorldBank has confirmed that it has now turned
the page of the WCD era, even if it is still
difficult to admit it politically. During an intervention
at a high level panel on Water Infrastructure forDevelopment in Large countries, Rachel Kyte, Vice
President for sustainable development at the Bank,
gave a very strongly worded position in favor oflarge water infrastructures and hydropower.
For her, “the criteria for evaluating large scalewater projects that are applied by the World Bank,
the regional development banks or the privatebanking sector, are now converging. And that is agood thing.” She referred to the era of the World
Commission on Dams, a joint operation of theWorld Bank and the International Union for theConservation of Nature, created in 1998. Its final
report, issued in November 2000, met a lukewarm
welcome.
While there was general agreement on thefive core values and the seven strategic priorities
expressed by the WCD, ICOLD and other groups
expressed strong reservations regarding theCommission’s policy principles and guidelines.
They singled out the principle according to which“Decisions affecting indigenous peoples should betaken with their free, prior and informed consent.”
According to them, that principle would mean thatbasically no dam could be built. On the contrary,
all the anti-dam organizations considered the WCD
report as an unsurpassable bible, since it gavethem the mean to block all dam projects.
At that time, the World Bank financed very
few project in the world and it shared the WCD
conclusions that while “dams have made animportant and significant contribution to humandevelopment,” in “too many cases an unacceptableand often unnecessary price has been paid tosecure those benefits, especially in social andenvironmental terms, by people displaced, bycommunities downstream, by taxpayers and by thenatural environment.”
12 years later, the situation has changed radically.
The Vice-President for Sustainable Development
stated that “Large scale water infrastructure havean essential role to play, especially in light of theclimate change mitigation”. After explaining themulti-purpose nature of a dam, which brings benefits
for power, agriculture, flood protection, watersupply, navigation and tourism, she concluded:“Large hydropower facilities have become a key
milestone for green growth”.
In a later interview with this author, she was morecautious, stating that “A lot of the ideas included in
the WCD report have gone through. For example,
the Free Prior Informed Consent of the indigenous
communities, which was wrongly understood as a
Veto Right from their part, is now seen as a processof developing dialog on the project. Anotherexample is that the project developers have now
recognized that there is a financial cost in neglectingthat kind of social dialog in the conception phase of
the project. This is a direct result of WCD work !”On the contrary, John Briscoe from the Harvard
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences,interviewed the same day stated : “My opinion on
WCD is that it was over since it published its final
report. At that time, none of the large dam-building
nations supported it and nobody used it since thento build a dam. So, I do consider it now belongs
to the past. Another signal for that is coming fromthe German government, which was one of the rarestrong supporters of WCD. During the conferenceon Water & Energy nexus last November, there wasno mention of WCD, neither during the conference
nor in the final recommandation.”
Together with Kyte and public figures from
Odebrecht Energy, UNESCO-ICIWaRM, WWF,and the governments of Uganda and India,
Briscoe participated in a debate organized by theWorld Water Council on March 16th : “Increasing
Resilience to Climate Change: What is the role of
Water Storage?”
Asked on a difference between now and12 years ago, he answered: “If we had at thattime the kind of debate we had today, the NGOs
would have constantly mentioned WCD guidelines.
Today, they did not dare to utter the word WCD
because they know it has completely lost credibility
in the developing sector.” He was referring to thepresentation by Zachary Hurwitz, policy program
coordinator at International Rivers, who was so

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{5

In 2050●

Energy sources are limited:
Fossil energies are polluting and emitting
greenhouse gases and their reserves are limited;● Nuclear energy is restricted to industrial
countries which have the technology and theDue to climate change, water distribution
may become more irregular, and disasters
related to floods and droughts will worsen.

The continuously increasing
demands of water, food andenergy will challenge thenatural resources. We needto face this exceptionalsituation because at thesame time:

The global increase in population, both ruraland urban, and the socio-economic development with increasing living standards for all,will continuously raise the requirement forwater, food and energy consumption. Populations will continue to concentrate in cities
where the need for water, food and energy
will be most acute. The rapid population
growth and socio-economic development
means that by 2050:

world
population will likely exceed ninebillion inhabitants

Taking into account the aging process,
improved knowledge, and the effects ofclimate change, there is a need to increase
efforts to maintain the existing water storage
infrastructure. For example, modern monitoring and engineering can improve the safetyof structures against extreme earthquakes andfloods. Climate change is likely to make

There is need to improve themaintenance and operationof existing water storage
infrastructure.

etc.

Environmental services

Navigation

Industrial water supply

Drinking water and sanitation

Energy production

Irrigation for food production

and drought mitigation

Flood management

existing water systems and further develop newwater storage infrastructure. This will require
adequate legislation and funding. It must also
include the optimization of the use of water by
combining multiple purposes:

Drinking water and sanitation

One in eight people in the world do not haveaccess to safe water for drinking, cooking andsanitation. With the expected population

Hydropower supplies about 16% of theworld’s electricity today. Hydro supplies
more than 50% of national electricity in about
65 countries, more than 80% in 32 countries
and almost all of the electricity in 13 countries.
The flexibility of this renewable resource isfundamental in matching electricity services
with demand and contributes to the developmentof other intermittent sources of electricity
production such as solar and wind, which areless flexible. Consequently, the energy storedin water, converted through pure hydropower
and pumped storage, improves the reliabilityof power systems in a clean and efficientmanner. Only 30% of the world’s identifiedhydropower potential has been developed.
Transforming the undeveloped hydropower
potential into reality would save extraordinary
amounts of fossil fuel, reduce greenhouse gas
emissions substantially and improve themanagement of water resources.

Energy production

additional production will require efficientuse of existing irrigation facilities andextending the area under irrigation throughincreased water storage facilities. It isestimated that 80% of additional foodproduction by 2025 will need to comefrom
irrigated land.

Water Storage for
Sustainable Development

World declaration

Continued cooperation among various
stakeholders, government authorities, research
institutions, businesses, civil societies, local
communities and so on, to speed up thedevelopment and implementation of effective
and sustainable water solutions.

Today, water and energy schemes can be built ina safe, economic, and eco-friendly way. Water,food and energy services are intricately linked
and need to be developed in an integrated
approach. Based on the multi-faceted andcross-boundary nature of water issues in thepresent world, we call for:We, therefore, call for joint
efforts to develop water
storage infrastructure
in a sustainable way.

Environmental services

Water storage infrastructure can keep thehealthy life of rivers through ecologicaloperation and serve wider environmental
services. They can allow upkeep of minimum
flows during dry seasons which enable thepreservation of many aquatic animals andplants during droughts. Moreover, dams andreservoirs contribute to stabilizing groundwater levels in adjacent land areas. Reservoirs
can also be used to create new and biologically desirable habitats and to irrigate wetland
biotopes or wetland forests.

CIGB
ICOLD

To face this century’s greatest challenge – tomanage water sustainably – we need to strengthen

Humanity is facing a more
severe water situation thanit has ever faced in the past.

The role of dams and reservoirs in sustainable
development has already been acknowledged
in various declarations: World Summit on
Sustainable Development (2002), Beijing
Declaration on Hydropower and Sustainable
Development (2004), Dams and Hydropowerfor African Sustainable Development (2008),
and the Ministerial Declarations of the Fifthand Sixth World Water Fora (2009/2012).

Water storage infrastructure, providing multiple
water services, is vital for human development. Out of the 40,000 km3 of freshwater
available each year, only 9,000 km3/year isaccessible. Through the construction of
more than 50,000 large dams and millions
of small reservoirs throughout the world
over the past 5,000 years, many communities are able to enjoy reliable water
services. These water storage facilities
regulate about 4,000 km3/year.

Water is precious andwater storage infrastructure
will become increasingly
important!

security of nuclear energy has aroused
people's wide concern;● Variable renewables such as wind and solar
sources are valuable and should be developed
as much as possible; however, they need backup. Hydropower can play this role, but
policies and markets are not encouraging this.

IWRA

Inland navigation for goods transportation,compared with land and air freight, has manyenvironmental and economic advantages.
Inland navigation is also well suited for handling large quantities of cargo and items withlarge dimensions. For those reasons, nations
have encouraged inland navigation on canals
and natural river courses. The control oflevels in water courses for navigation requires
water storage, and this can be an importantrole for multipurpose reservoirs andinfrastructure.

Navigation

Industrial water supply

Every manufactured product uses water
during its production process. Industrial water
use includes purposes such as processing,washing, diluting, cooling, or transporting a
product as well as for sanitation needs within
the manufacturing facility. Industries that use
large amounts of water produce food, paper,
clothing, chemicals, refined petroleum, or
primary metals, all of which would aid
developing countries to increase the value of
their natural resources. However, sustainable
and reliable water supply is a precondition to
encourage establishment of such productive
industries.

growth, and without investment in storage,
the number of people who could not haveaccess to water will reach 4.2 billion by 2025.
One of the Millennium Development Goals
calls for halving, “by 2015 the proportion of
the population without sustainable access tosafe drinking water and basic sanitation”.
Investment in sustainable water storage
infrastructure in developing countries would
help achieve this goal.

The International Commission On Large Dams (ICOLD),
The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID),
The International Hydropower Association (IHA),
and the International Water Resources Association (IWRA).

Aproved on 5th June 2012 in Kyoto, by:

Irrigated agriculture covers about 277 million
hectares, about 18% of the world’s arable
land. This makes this land remarkably moreproductive, providing about 40% of theworld’s crop output. Irrigated lands also
concentrate agricultural employment, withnearly 30% of the rural population working
in these areas. Much of the world’s foodproduction must be in regions with long dry
seasons. Since arable land area is limited, theIrrigation for food production

Floods and droughts are the greatest water
management problem for many countries
with insufficient water storage infrastructure. Every year, more than 200 million
people are affected by flood damage. Due toclimate change, floods and droughts will
become more frequent and severe. Water
storage infrastructure is a key component ofwater disaster mitigation, especially indeveloping countries.

Flood managementand drought mitigation

There is need to accelerate
the development of new
water storage infrastructure
for multiple purposes.

reservoir regulation more difficult as hydrological patterns change. Reservoir regulationmust be optimized to store more floodwater,while considering the requirements of both
upstream and downstream areas. With thelatest forecasting systems and real-time
acquisition of data, dynamic operations tocontrol water levels in reservoirs can achieve
the best balance between infrastructure safety
and the wise use of water resources.

●

The organizations signing this declarationcommit to collaborate with all partners andstakeholders that share this common vision.

●

A balanced approach, combining large,
medium and small reservoirs, is required;
one that takes into account sustainable
development, with full commitment tominimize negative impact.

●

To meet growing demands for water, foodand energy, it is time to develop solutions
for better use of water resources, especiallyfor developing countries, and to match
political commitments with action.

●

The services they provide will be crucial
in the mitigation of, and adaptation to,
climate change.

Investment in water storage infrastructure
is investment in the green economy.

●● Water is life and water storage infrastructure
is an indispensable tool for society.

In conclusion

Funding agencies to effect action in countries which need water storage, promoting
national and regional development, with
innovative financing mechanisms.

Improved policies, guidelines and protocols
to evaluate and mitigate environmental andsocial impact of various storage options and toaddress the concerns of affected communities.

Development of sharing rivers with
win-win cooperation to better serve regional
requirements on water, food and energy.

defensive he was led to say that “he is not against
dams, but against the impact of large dams”!
During another panel, organized on March 14th
by the US Army Corps of Engineers (Mr. Steven
Stockton, director for Civil Works and Mr. Jerome
Delli Priscoli, head of the Institute for Water
Resources), many other leaders of large countries
also expressed the idea that dams are an absolutenecessity.
The Chinese minister of Water resources,
Mr. Chen Lei reminded the gigantic efforts of his
country to achieve water conservancy: 87,000
reservoirs, 300,000 km of river dikes, 230 GW of
installed hydropower capacity among many otherimpressive figures. Thanks to these efforts, “China
has been able to feed 21% of the world population
with 6% of the world’s freshwater resources and
9% of the world’s arable land”. He also stressedthat “infrastructures that we are building are crucial
for adapting to climate change consequences andfighting against floods.”
Steven Stockton US ACE Director for civil works
reminded the crucial role played by the engineers
in the building of the USA nation, taking thefamous example of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Rachel Kyte during the Forum in Marseille8} T h e

D A M SHe stressed that “the efficiency of a large waterproject to generate growth depends highly on
its multipurpose nature.” The more you have thismultipurpose aspect, with the food-energy-water
nexus, the more you tend to trigger an economic
development that profits all the layers of society.
Jerson Kelman, former President of the Brazilian
National Water Agency, now President of theLight Group, the Rio de Janeiro Power Company,
recognized that “dam builders made many errors
in the past” by not taking sufficiently into accountthe environment. He concluded that “not all thetechnically feasible projects should be built”. But
he stressed that there is no such thing as a “without
dams alternative”. He advocated that a few large
dams were much better than many small dams, forthe environment and for the economy giving theexample of water evaporation, much larger in small
projects than in large ones. The question that isoften forgotten and that should be asked is: “whathappens if this project is not built ?”Rachel Kyte basically answered that question:
no green growth.		
Emmanuel Grenier

John Briscoe “My opinion on WCD is that it was oversince it published its final report.”

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Central Europe goes for PSP
storage plants development
An European initiative signedby Germany, Austria and Switzerland
calls for the development of more
pumped-storage power plants.

Those plants are the only existing mean to store
large quantities of electricity. Beside playing a
crucial role for stabilizing the network frequency
by easing the supply-demand balance, power
storage is becoming absolutely necessary becauseof the rapid development of intermittent renewableenergies like wind or solar.
This is recognized by the three signatory
ministers: Phillipp Rosler of the Austrian Republic’s
Ministry of Economy and Technology; Reinhold
Mitterlehner of Germany’s Ministry of Economy,
Family and Youth; and Doris Leuthard of the
Swiss Council for the Environment, Transport,
Energy and Communications. They declarepumped storage is essential if Europe wants toreach its energy and climate policy objectives.
Those objectives are often familiarly called the“20-20-20 targets”.
European countries have agreed in 2008 tolower their greenhouse gas emissions 20% by
the year 2020 below 1990 levels. That would
be accomplished by investments in renewableelectricity generation like wind and solar
power : 20% of European energy is to come fromrenewable resources. The third objective is toincrease overall energy efficiency by 20%.

The Nand-de-Drance (Switzerland) pumping-storage
scheme is using the Emosson dam as lower reservoir.

storage technology present,” and their development
is essential to “offset the volatile supply of wind andsolar systems.”
The agreement not only calls for the expansion ofexisting pumped-storage facilities but also crossborder transmission of energy currently being
produced. But the agreement does not mention
the obstacles to the use of pumped storage plants,
like the rates applied to electricity transport whichmake the operation much less profitable (utilities
operating a pumping storage station have to pay
twice for electricity transport).

As the initiative notes, however, “pumped storage
power plants are the only industrially available

The original text (in German) of the joint
initiative can be read on the German’s ministry for
science here.		

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{9

ICOLD Regional Clubs
Report on Regional Clubs
By Emmanuel Grenier
derived from a report preparedby Giovanni Ruggeri for the ICOLD Board

B

etween ICOLD, the global organization on Dams,
and the National Committees on Large Dams,
there is an intermediary level of organization
under development: the Regional Clubs. The
European Club (21 member countries) was founded
in 1995, soon followed by INCA (Association of
ICOLD Nat. Committees of the Americas, 14 member
countries) and AAA (Africa Australasia Associationof ICOLD Nat. Committees, 14 member countries),
both founded in 2000. In 2002, a fourth regional clubwas founded: the East Asia Pacific Group of ICOLD
National Committees, with 17 member countries

A meeting of the African regional
club during last Congress in Kyoto

Another local organization should be mentioned :the East Asian Area Dam Conference was foundedin 2004, with the unique aim of organizing periodic
conferences. It is limited to three countries : China,
Japan and South Korea.
A Constitution has been defined by each one of
the four Clubs. The East Asia Dam Conference isonly aimed to the organization of Dam Conferences.
Therefore it has not a “Constitution” but a simpler“Agreement”. The Clubs have rather similar objectives.
The main aim is the exchange of information, experienceand knowledge, through meetings, events or Working
Groups.
Websites of European Club and INCA :European Club :  http://cnpgb.inag.pt/icoldClub/index.htm
INCA : http://www.abirh.org/inca10} T h e

D A M SThe European Club has already organized
8 Symposia, the 9th one being scheduled in 2013, in
Italy. INCA has organized 7 Workshops, the last four
ones having taken place in Argentina. The East Asia
Pacific Group has organized none, but there were
6 symposia organized by the East Asian Area Dam
Conference.
The European Club and the INCA Club have theirown website, giving information about the organization,
its objectives, membership and activities.

What is the interest of Regional Clubs ?
Regional Clubs can be very effective for exchanging
knowledge, with particular reference to topics of sharedinterest at regional scale. They can also play a key rolein increasing the dissemination of ICOLD’s policies
and culture, by involving individuals or organizations
that can hardly afford “worldwide” activities.
The main interest of Regional Clubs is to work withICOLD methods on subjects which are of main andshared interest at regional scale.
Up until now, only the European Club has Working
Groups. Eight of them have finished their work on thefollowing subjects
 “European Dam Legislation”
 “Geomembranes & Geosynthetics”
 “Uplift Pressures Under Concrete Dams”
 “Sliding Safety of Concrete Dams”
 “European Water Directive”
 “Seismic Criteria”
 “Ageing of Concrete Dams”
 “Education”
ive other Working Groups are currently working
Fon: “Internal Erosion in Embankment Dams”
 “Dam Safety of Existing Dams”
 “Floods”
 “Public Safety”
 “Dam Safety Risk Assessment and Management”
The existing reports can be freely downloaded fromthe above-mentioned website.
As a whole, the ICOLD community has had, till now, avery limited information about the activities, and sometimes
even about the existence, of ICOLD Regional Clubs.
Synthetic information about the Clubs is now
available in ICOLD’s website.		

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a Wind of Energy
By Johanne Bibeau, President of INCA
Neuchen a view of the river

INCA Meeting and Symposiumin Neuchen (Argentina) in 2010

I

NCA, the ICOLD National Committees of
the Americas, is a Regional Club establishedsince the year 2000. The By-Laws weresigned in Venezuela by seven National Committees
representatives. Eleven years later, the INCA has
evolved and is developing more than ever a Windof Energy.
Its mission is to encourage cooperation andexchange of information, experience and opinion
concerning dam related subjects among thedifferent American nations, by discussing dam
issues in the Americas, promoting the benefitsof dams and informing about their concerns, andenhancing access to ICOLD knowledge andexperience.
In 2012, there are 17 active National
Committees INCA. The interest of National
Committees is increasing and, hopefully, morethan 25 National Committees could join INCA in
the near future.
Activities:
The INCA group met in Kyoto, Japan, on June
5th during the ICOLD Annual Event. Somehighlights were:

1. Eleven (11) countries were represented fora total of 15 participants. A new edition of
the By-Laws was discussed and its updating
is under progress;

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2. The web site is now linked to the ICOLD

one. The Spanish version which is currently
being translated to the English, is on its way(http://www.abirh.org/inca or http://www.
icold-cigb.net );3. The next annual INCA meeting will be heldin August 2013 in Seattle, USA;4. The next Symposium/Workshop will be heldin the province of Saskatchewan, Canada(September 24-26, 2012);

5. A recent network has been developed todisseminate the benefits of joining the
ICOLD and INCA associations to theoverall American countries, with the help of
Alejandro Pujol acting as 6th Vice-Presidentof Americas for ICOLD.

The INCA Regional group is evolving as its
members are blowing in the same direction while
fed by a wind of energy. ICOLD members andcurrent as well as future INCA members arewelcomed at the next Symposium/Workshop
which will be held in Saskatchewan, Canada next
September. Interesting subjects as Legislation
on Dam Safety, Dams Construction Challenges
will be part of the themes to be discussed. Actual
INCA members are encouraged to promote thebenefits of being a member of ICOLD to theirneighbors of Americas and invite them to the next
Annual Meeting, in Seattle, August 2013.		

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Vlady France Conseil

ICOLD activities
A filmon dams

Short course
in South African excellent documentary film has been
produced by the Economic Community of West African States, withthe support of the International Union for theConservation of Nature.

he South African National Committeeon Large Dams organizes a shortcourse on “ Advanced Technologies
for Construction of Dams and Environmental
Considerations during Implementation ”

A

http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=8PsMo1kniz8&lr=1

Adama Nombre, former vice-President of
ICOLD, is appearing in the program and isable to convey ICOLD’s main message about
the urgent necessity of dams for development.
The documentary film is only one part ofa regional consultation process on large
infrastructure projects in the region, a dialog
on dams that is summarized in an English
language pamphlet that can be downloaded
here:
http://www.dialoguebarrages.org/dialoguebarrages/
images/stories/downloads/Depliant_dialogue_en.pdf

TThis short course takes place in
Pieter - maritzburg, 1 / 3 August 2012.
Registration can be done on SANCOLD’s
website :www.sancold.org.za

The SANCOLD Management has agreed that
SANCOLD should form a Young Engineer
Forum that would liaise with the ICOLD
Forum. An initial meeting of interested
persons will be held during the forthcoming
SANCOLD Course.
It is to be noted that South Africa is preparing
a candidacy to host ICOLD meeting in 2016.

Water Storage and Hydropower Development for Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ~ 16-18 April 2013
ICOLD co-organizes with Aqua International and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation afirst-of-its-kind African conference. With more than 7300 MW of hydro capacity at various stages of
implementation, and a comparable amount planned, Ethiopia is the leading country for current hydrodevelopment in Africa.
The Conference will take place under the patronage of H.E. Alemaheyu Tegenu, Minister of Water &Energyhttp://www.hydropower-dams.com/africa-2013.php?c_id=89

TheDamsNewsletter

n°12 July 2012

Published by ICOLD-CIGB - ISSN: 0534-8293
Central Office: 61, avenue Kléber 75116 Paris - France
Tel.: (33) 1 47 04 17 80 - Fax: (33) 1 53 75 18 22
Publishing Director: Mr Michel de Vivo, Secretary General of ICOLD
Editor: Mr Emmanuel Grenier

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