“Setting the World Bank President Straight On Large Dams”, 4 Apr 2016

…World Bank President…addressed the Union Theological Seminary in New York on “The Principle of Mercy” …In a question from the floor, Jim Kim was challenged on the impacts of large dams as evidenced by the murder of Berta Cáceres in Honduras. Kim called the murder an “incredibly tragic situation,” and went on to present a strong defense of the World Bank’s role in financing large dams…“The way I approach it is this: If we’re doing something that is really, really bad and that is really offending or really taking livelihoods away, tell us what it is, we’ll stop it and we’ll try to make it right. Because you cannot do the work we’re trying to do and not have some of these incidents happen…”The World Bank President deserves to be set straight on his comments…First, hydropower is not the first or only alternative to coal...Secondly, the mega-dams funded by the World Bank are not primarily serving the poor…Finally, the World Bank has still not learned its lessons on resettlement...