ABSTRACT
The Nordic aid agencies’ process for reviewing the environmental impacts of the dams they finance in the Third World is rigged. There is a pressure to lend, a bureaucratic momentum, a bias in favour of projects which ensures that Swedish and Norwegian aid funds subsidize contracts on dams for Swedish and Norwegian companies. The environmental impacts are studied, in accordance with procedures that have been in place for almost a decade. But usually these studies ignore the negative effects of projects on nature and the poor. And when concerns are raised, they tend to be swept aside.
