Water Resources Management in Asia, vol 1.

The task on which this report is focussed is not an easy one. The report is the first installment in a series of steps designed to reorient the historical modus operandii of the World Bank with regard to disbursements to borrowers within the Asia region. The objectives are to learn from experiences elsewhere, to improve the quality of advice given to borrowers in the region and to promote programs and projects that advance the efficient planning and management of water resources. The study aims to establish a framework for considering water resource problems in the region, and within this framework to evaluate how major water issues are being addressed and, finally, to identify strategies to guide the activities of the bank related to water.

The report is organized around the framework chosen by the authors that envisages four main areas of concern: institutional; planning and long-term management; real-time management; and economic and financial policies. These are probably not the key constituents of the framework I might have suggested. And I suspect that someone who reviewed the manuscript prior to publication had the same feelings, for an extra chapter on "environmental and social aspects" is sandwiched uncomfortably between these four chapters and the conclusions regarding the role of the bank. This chapter is embarrassingly weak and is scarcely referred to elsewhere. It is an afterthought. It contains one paragraph on environmental assessment; three paragraphs on global warming tell us that "some now believe that there is a threat to climatic change due to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases" (p. 100). Yes, some may also believe that the earth is still flat, but we don't give their opinions equal status to those of NASA. All major atmospheric science bodies in the world have issued statements regarding the reality of climatic change, and any overview report, such as this one, that professes to chart the future direction for the main lending institution in the world might have investigated the topic a little more rigorously. Furthermore, the word, or even the idea, of biodiversity does not occur once within the entire report, yet another bank report has already told us that this region will experience the greatest loss of biodiversity in the world over the next few decades, and that wetlands and riverine forests are among the most endangered ecosystems (Braatz 1992).

I find the attention paid to environmental aspects to be a major drawback. There is also no mention of the linking concepts and approaches espoused by ecological economics. Perhaps this deficiency is not so surprising when the backgrounds of the authors are revealed to be those of an engineer, an economist and an agricultural consultant. Why did they not involve someone in the team with a solid environmental background who may have asked a few more pointed questions? Unfortunately, this seems to be a clear case of the leopard still being content to wear its old spots, despite all the rhetoric now directed at the need for environmental considerations to underpin all bank operations.

This predilection for "old" thinking is further reflected in the lack of attention given to concepts of demand management: "The only way that Bangkok can be supplied and further land subsidence avoided while accommodating agriculture in the Chao Phraya Basin will probably be in water imports" (p. 4) says the report while arguing for the inevitability of "further massive water resource development programs" (p. 4). We have to be a little less linear and a bit more creative about the future than is reflected in this dogma. Dearden et al. (1994) have provided some insights revealed by ecological economics about this particular case. The environment can no longer afford to pay the costs of the "massive" programs supported by the bank in the past. Unfortunately, the "new" approach, as outlined in this report, does not appear to be significantly different.

PHILIP DEARDEN University of Victoria, B.C, Canada