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dam-l LS: BBC coverage of the Rally for the Valley
Here's some articles/pieces on the Narmada protests produced by the BBC.
1) Narmada dam protest winds up, 8/4/99
2) Narmada: A history of controversy, 7/29/99
3) Narmada: The threat to local villages, 7/29/99
For your info, there are some excellent live-audio interviews with
Arundhati Roy and a BBC reporter available on the web at
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_411000/411857
.stm.
We may try to transcribe one of the interviews for those whose computers
are not able to play the recordings.
Good photos of the Rally for the Valley are available at
http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_409000/409199.stm
*******************
Narmada dam protest winds up
Some 60 villages will be submerged this monsoon season
By Mahesh Pandey in Bhopal, BBC, 8/4/99
A group of activists led by best-selling Indian author Arundhati Roy is on
its way back to Delhi at the end of a six-day rally to protest against a
controversial dam project.
The Rally for the Valley, which set off last week, reached the village of
Domkhedi on the banks of the River Narmada on Tuesday night.
The rally was a last-ditch effort to stop the dam being filled, but its
catchment areas have already started to fill with water.
The group - made up of some 500 activists, artists and celebrities - passed
through the village of Jalsindhi, the first area in Madhya Pradesh to be
submerged by waters filling the dam, before reaching Domkhedi.
Hundreds and thousand of people gathered on the banks of the Narmada to
show their support for the group, chanting slogans saying "nobody will
move, the dam will not be constructed".
The state authorities said extra police and security were put in place
after Ms Roy said she felt personally threatened by pro-dam activists.
Supporters of the dam argue that the water and power it will provide will
be crucial for the entire region, spanning four states in the west of the
country (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra).
But Ms Roy and her group say more than 200 villages will be submerged and
nearly a million people displaced by the dam waters.
Controversy has surrounded the dam project since its inception more than
ten years ago.
This dam is the first of a series of 30 which will be built on the Narmada
river.
*****************
Narmada: A history of controversy
The BBC's Jyotsna Singh on one of India's longest-running debates
BBC, 7/29/99
Tens of thousands of activists, protesting against the construction of a
huge dam in the western Indian state of Gujarat, have set off on a journey
to the construction site.
The protest is one of the several led by activists in the last 15 years.
The Narmada project dates back to the 1940s. It was part of a vision of
development articulated by India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Several legal and logistical arguments between various Indian states over
the project delayed progress until 1979.
Ambitious undertaking
Apart from the Sardar Sarovar project on the eastern edge of Gujarat state,
another huge dam called the Narmada Sagar is to be built in the central
Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
In addition, at least 30 large dams, 135 medium ones and nearly 3,000 small
dams, used to channel water into thousands of miles of irrigation canals,
are to be built.
Since its inception, the project has faced several economic and legal
obstacles.
Environmentalists argue this will mean that eventually only 35% of the
river will flow in to the Arabian sea.
If completed, the Sardar Sarovar dam will be about 450 feet high, submerge
nearly 40,000 hectares of land and displace a quarter of a million people.
Those who argue in the project's favour say it will supply water to 30
million people, and irrigate crops to feed another 20 million.
They say land which would be submerged by the waters of the dam is already
greatly degraded and deforested. They also point out that hydroelectric
power is cheaper and less polluting than thermo-nuclear power.
Environmental costs
But anti-dam activists criticise the claims. Environmentalists have lobbied
hard in the past decade to prevent large dams being built.
The dams, they say, will submerge forest farmland, disrupt downstream
fisheries and possibly inundate and salinate land along the canals,
increasing the prospect of insect-borne diseases.
One of the most contentious issues has been the displacement of up to a
quarter of a million people, many of whom belong to small tribal
communities.
Much of the debate has also centred around the propriety of building large
dams when smaller dams might do. Some scientists say the construction of
big dams could cause earthquakes and, in a country as disorganised as
India, it is likely that necessary maintenance of these dams may suffer.
World Bank withdraws
There have been several protests against the project organised under a
coalition called the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement).
Environmental and human concerns have also led to international lending
institutions pulling out of the project.
The World Bank withdrew from the project six years ago, in a move that was
seen as a breakthrough by anti-dam activists.
But now, many believe the project is unlikely to be abandoned. More than
20bn rupees have already been spent and the government argues that stopping
the project half-way would be wasteful.
Supporters of the dam have begun a publicity campaign to advertise its
advantages and political parties in Gujarat have largely supported its
construction.
**************
Narmada: The threat to local villages
Waters continue to rise in the Narmada dam project
By Sanjeev Srivastava in Jalsindhi
BBC, 7/29/99
A group of protestors are setting off from the Indian capital, Delhi, for
the site of the Narmada Dam. The Indian government has spent millions of
dollars on the project, which, it says, will be a boon for India's three
western states.
But protestors say the dam has come at a huge environmental and human cost.
They say nearly 250 villages will be swallowed up by the waters of the
Narmada river and nearly a quarter of a million people will be displaced.
Many local people are threatening to stay in their villages and drown as
the waters rise, rather than leave their homeland.
Displaced villagers
The remote western Indian village of Jalsindhi lies in the dam's basin and
would be among the first villages in the western Indian state of Gujarat to
be submerged, if water levels in the river rise this monsoon.
The government has offered alternative land to the families living in the
village. But the plots are 150 km away. And, as one of the village women,
Perwi Devi, explained, the offer is not good enough to induce them to leave
their ancestral homes.
"What else can we do? The government doesn't offer us proper land. It
offers us land which has already been farmed by other people, which has
some kind of quarrel attached with it," Perwi Devi told the BBC.
"The world is so big - why can't the government find forest land and give
it to us?" she said.
But the government appears to be in no mood to give in to the villagers'
demands. In fact, construction work on the dam is continuing apace.
It is already a massive 80 metre structure, stretching across the Narmada
River. But the government recently won a three-year legal battle which has
allowed them to add an extra eight metres to its height
Development needs
The result, say opponents, will be that more villages will be lost
underwater for ever, as the river water rises. The government says its
provision for the people of these villages has been generous.
"In India, for example, we have the monsoon only for four or five months of
the whole year. We need to store water," said Vinod Babbar, the official in
charge of resettling the tribal people of the area.
"In the past, we stored water in small projects. They dry up after the
first consecutive drought. And we've been having three years of consecutive
droughts.
"In foreign countries, they have built a large number of dams already, in
the 1930s to 1950s. And they have utilised about 90-95% of the river
waters. In Narmada, the utilisation of the water is only 10%," he said.
The government argues that this is a vital development that will irrigate
huge areas of land, generate power and provide drinking water. India needs
this dam, they say.
But many are not convinced, saying that the environmental and human costs
will be too high.
Forceful protest
In the 15 years since construction work started, a strong anti-dam campaign
has developed.
Parveen Jahangir is a member of the Save Narmada Campaign.
"Now, what basically we want is a true development, where people don't have
to be displaced for imaginary benefits," she told the BBC.
"And the facts of the case must be made public. The people affected by
these projects should be part of the decision-making process. What we are
looking for is true development and an equitable development," she said.
Anti-dam feeling is at a high. But it is unlikely the government will bow
to pressure. Since the World Bank withdrew funding from the project, after
opposition from environmentalists, the government has had to pay all the
bills.
The dam has already cost nearly $2bn - money that some would say has been
well-spent.
Venkat Rao, news editor of the Bombay edition of The Indian Express, has
watched the dam being built and believes that it does offer many benefits.
"Keeping that in mind, and the fact that we are a democracy, it is for us
to balance the equation: the larger good for the larger number of people,"
Mr Rao said.
The Narmada River has sustained life in parts of western India for centuries.
With neither the government nor the anti-dam agitators showing any signs of
backing down, and water levels beginning to rise, this benevolent river may
soon turn into a force of destruction for those who have so long lived by
its banks.