“Let It Go”: Comparative Study on Zombie Water Projects in Europe and Asia
“Let It Go”: Comparative Study on Zombie Water Projects in Europe and Asia

Summary/Abstract: To date, there can be found numerous controversial large-scale water projects in Asia and Europe. The so-called “zombie water projects” are associated with insufficient communication, massive investments and prolonged marginalisation of the negative impacts. Traditional impact assessment studies backed by water engineers and other water professionals are struggling to accountably address the political issues. Hence, in the presented study, a new schematic political impact assessment was proposed to evaluate meaningful water dialogue. To dynamics of water dialogue over the zombie water projects was investigated upon the VUDU analytical framework at four micro-case studies (Navigational Channel Improvement Project, Myitsone dam, Oder-Danube-Elbe Canal and Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros dam). These studies were selected according to the extensive literature review to illustrate different development pathways and long-term behavioural changes. The results show that despite the conflict of interests and prolonged distrust towards zombie water projects, the justification of these projects were often driven by inconsistent empirical data, (i)rational justification and changing political environments. In addition, by comparing various four micro-case studies, we noticed that the meaningful water dialogue was more influenced by the degree of transparency and communication rather than the actual decision whenever to build such water project or not. By showing contemporary dilemmas towards the large-scale water project development, the presented study provides valuable feedback on the previous interdisciplinary studies regarding the transboundary water governance.

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