bank-financed projects often cause more environmental and social harm than good. Local groups in developing countries who believe they have been or could be adversely affected by bank-financed projects can use the panel as a forum for voicing complaints. For instance, a claim was filed against the $167 million Rondonia Natural Resources Management Project in Brazil. The project was meant to benefit fragile communities and their natural environment. But the claimants alleged that the bank failed to enforce its policies and loan conditions allowing critical project elements such as demarcation and protection of land for indigenous peoples and rubber tappers to be neglected One of the most notable panel findings highlights a "persistent imbalance that develops in projects that have infrastructure as well as social and environmental components," according to The World Bank Inspectton Panel: The First Four Years (1994-1998), a baok recently released by the panel. This imbalance occurs because although the bank finances infrastructure components, resettlement and environmental issues typically must be financed by the borrowing country said former panel member Alvaro Umana. If the cnnntry fails to adequately in-
corporate these components into the project plan people and the environment are direcdy affected Once a complaint is registered, the bank's management is required to provide proof to the inspection panel that appropriate policies and procedures were or will be complied with. If the panel determines that a complaint is valid, it recommends to the board that an investigation be carried out. However, the bank's board ultimately decides whether or not to allow the panel to investigate. Eight complaints have been processed by the panel through December 1997. The panel recommended investigations for five of them, but the board accepted only one—for a proposed $746 million hydroelectric dam on the Arun River in Nepal and the dam's 122-kilometer access road. "If [management] says the
claimant has no case, but the requester keeps asking questions and telling us their experiences, we have to look into it because these are two contradictory statements," said Ernst-Giinther Broder, one of the panel members. But once the panel formally recommends an investigation of continuing concerns, management typically submits an action plan, or "reaction plan," for improving the project, and the board decides to halt the investigation, Broder said. While such action plans may give the appearance that problems will be fixed "there needs to be a policy how they should be developed and claimants need to be involved in the development of those action plans " Hunter
The panel's mandate extends only over the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association. But nongovernmental organizations like Friends of the Earth (FOE) have been pushing for inspection panels to be integrated as well into the World Bank's two private sector arms, including the International Finance Corp. and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. "Corporate borrowers should be treated the same as government borrowers and the bank's private arms need to be held accountable for their loans and the quality of those loans " said Andrea Durbin FOE's international program director.—KRIS CHRISTEN
Study alludes to deformities from dioxin in Vietnam Dioxin left from the spraying of the pesticide Agent Orange in Vietnam has moved into the food chain in specific rural regions of this tiny country, causing significant ecological and human harm, according to a four-year study conducted by a Canadian consulting firm that specializes in dioxin sampling. The study, carried out by Hatfield Consultants, Ltd, takes a look at dioxin concentrations in limited areas heavily sprayed with defoliants during the Vietnam War, and compares the findings with results from unsprayed areas. In November of last year, the study had not yet been published in a peerreviewed journal. Hatfield's findings—that agricultural crops, fish, poultry, livestock, and human blood samples collected from heavily sprayed areas showed high dioxin levels—are not new, said Arnold Schecter, professor of preventative medicine and public health at the State University of New York-Birmingham. What is surprising about the study is the connection that the researchers allude to between dioxin exposure and human birth defects and malformations. Certain Vietnamese doctors have made this connection, but not all researchers agree, Schecter said. "I think gross malformations don't come from Agent Orange exposure, but I do expect to see some cancers. I would expect to see low birth weight, low head circumferences" and other problems in newborns, he said. The researchers report that deformities, early cancers, and other medical conditions have been noted in the region, and that Vietnamese health studies have indicated birth defects an order of magnitude higher in the sprayed region than in similar unsprayed areas. The authors call for a thorough multinational epidemiological investigation that might support the link between dioxin exposure and human health problems, a request supported by the Institute of Medicine and a team of researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Schecter said. The study was financed partly by Canadian sources, and underwritten by Hatfield Consultants, said Wayne Dwernychuk, vice president of the company. Vietnamese contributions were not financial, he said, but included the voluntary work of foresters, doctors, and biologists. "We are definitely hoping to procure additional funding to carry this study further, whether it be Canadian funding or a multinational approach," Dwernychuk said. Information on the report can be found at: http://www.hatfieldgroup.com —CATHERINE M. COONEY
1 2 A • JAN. 1, 1999 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NEWS
