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dam-l LS: Hecklers disrupt world water meet


>Source: Hindu, March 18, 2000
>
>1. Hecklers disrupt world water meet
>
>  By Kalpana Sharma
>
>  THE HAGUE, MARCH 17. Streakers, a man hanging from a balcony
>  and hecklers disrupted the formal opening of the World Water Forum
>  today in the capital of the Netherlands. The opening speaker, Mr.
>  Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, president, World Water Council, was not allowed
>  to speak as a naked man and woman suddenly jumped on to the stage,
>  stood in front of him and shouted `stop the Itoiz Dam, stop wasting
>  money'.
>
>  If the organisers of the meet, which has brought together over 3,500
>  people from 158 countries, had hoped for orderly discussions on a
>  range of issues revolving around water use and management, they had
>  clearly underestimated the strength of sentiments on this issue in many
>
>  parts of the world.
>
>  The protesters were from the Basque region of Spain where the
>  controversial Itoiz Dam was constructed some years ago. The reservoir,
>  which adversely affects a European-protected sanctuary, continues to
>  be controversial because it violates European law. Protestors have been
>
>  given long prison sentences by the Spanish Government. As a result, the
>
>  anti-dam group has carried out several spectacular protests in the last
>
>  few months, including hanging from the Millennium Wheel in London.
>  Today, they continued in the same manner. The security guards had a
>  particularly hard time dealing with the man hanging from the balcony
>with
>  a red banner and another who had managed to climb on to a ledge on
>  the wall.
>
>  The dramatic opening ceremony, which will be remembered more for
>  the protests than the song and dance numbers that preceded them or the
>  speeches, illustrates the underlying tensions that already mark this
>  gathering of water experts, Government representatives, NGOs and
>  others on the issue of the use and management of water resources.
>
>  While the doomsdayers, who included a group that has raised an alarm
>  about the availability of water and the water gap, want to stress
>issues
>  like water management, the non- governmental groups are more
>  concerned about issues such as privatisation of water, and the systems
>  of water management, like large dams, which have adverse impacts on
>  people and the environment.
>
>  The International Rivers Network states in its critique of the document
>
>  `World Water Vision', which backgrounds the discussions, that the real
>  crisis is one of over-consumption, waste, pollution, watershed
>  degradation, rampant dam-building, poorly- conceived and operated
>  infrastructure projects, corruption and inequality.
>
>  The Itoiz Dam is not the only one that will feature in the discussions.
>
>  Without deliberately planning to do so, the controversy on the Narmada
>  Dam is just waiting to surface with the Gujarat Minister for Water, Mr.
>
>  Jai Narain Vyas, scheduled to speak on water and energy and the
>  Narmada Bachao Andolan leader, Ms. Medha Patkar, also speaking at
>  a session on water and ethics. The writer, Ms. Arundhati Roy, has also
>  arrived to draw attention to the situation on the dams on the Narmada.
>------------------------------------


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