Preamble

This paper is addressed to ICOLD members and all others associated with dams. It is intended to enhance their awareness of the environmental issues of dam engineering by defining ICOLD's position on the subject.

ICOLD attaches great importance to the environmental and social aspects of dams and reservoirs, and wants them to be addressed with the same concern which has made the question of dam safety a predominant concept pervading all its work.

In addition to the three classical criteria of technical, economic and financial feasibility, dam projects have to satisfy a fourth and particularly stringent criterion, namely social and political acceptance. Today the decisive factor for such acceptance, ranking on a par with dam safety, is compatibility with the environment.

Thus, ICOLD will bring all its influence to bear on its members to encourage and assist them with regard to environment-conscious planning and construction, adequate environmental impact assessments, and the implementation of mitigating measures. However, ICOLD cannot enforce this policy as an organization, nor can it criticize or comment on individual projects in its member countries or others, much as it disapproves ill-advised projects which can only jeopardize the generally good reputation of modern dam engineering. Instead, ICOLD will focus on positive examples to show what good dam engineering, is by presenting selected case studies which cover a wide range of projects and project settings, and which deal in depth with their specific problems and the successful strategies adopted to solve them. When such successful projects have been given due prominence, no planner will be able to avoid having his own projects measured by them and judged accordingly.