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DAM-L LS: NDTV (India) on WCD Report (fwd)

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subject: LS: NDTV (India) on WCD Report
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Following are two stories on the release of the WCD Report.
Source: www.ndtv.com

-------------------------
World Commission on Dams releases report, condemns large dams
Thursday, November 16
-------------------------

(London): The World Commission on Dams' much-awaited report on big dams was 
released in London on Thursday. The report is clear in its condemnation of 
large dams and the price paid by displaced people and by the environment. 
The report that took the independent World Bank sponsored body three years 
to complete, also cites evidence to prove that large dams have failed to 
produce as much electricity, provide as much water or control as much flood 
damage as their backers claim.

The report points out that though large dams can play an important role in 
meeting needs of electricity, drinking water and flood management-- in 
practice, too high a price has been paid in social and environmental terms.

The commission recommends that:

No dam should be built without the free, prior and informed consent of the 
local people. Compensation and resettlement needs to be worked out before a 
project is undertaken A comprehensive and participatory assessment of the 
needs of the area has to be worked out Alternatives need to be developed 
before a project is undertaken

Activists in India who have been campaigning against the Sardar Sarovar dam 
in Madhya Pradesh say that the report is a vindication of their position as 
none of these safeguards have been put in place for the case in question.

-------------------------
World Commission on Dams report strengthens NBA objectives
Friday, November 17
-------------------------

(New Delhi): The report of the World Commission on Dams has come as a great 
boost to the fight against the Sardar Sarovar Project. Narmada Bachao 
Andolan activists today took their struggle off the streets and into the 
rooms where policies are made. Delhi's corridors of power were taken over 
by activists of the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

The targets of their ire were those in power who NBA activist think are not 
listening to the people affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project. The Power 
and Water Resources Ministry in Delhi was echoing adivasi protest songs.

The NBA is struggling to get the governments of the four states involved in 
the SSP to rehabilitate and compensate all those being displaced by the 
mega dam project. With no minister or secretary willing to see the 
activists at first, a potential stand-off threatened as the police was 
called in. Finally, a series of meetings and a promised appointment with 
all concerned politicians and bureaucrats tomorrow cooled off frayed 
tempers for the moment atleast. Vimal Bhai, activist, NBA stated, "All of 
us here will drown if the project goes ahead. No one has been 
rehabilitated. The Supreme Court asked the government to tell them about 
all the schemes for rehabilitation within a month. Nothing has happened."

The World Commission on Dams' report vindicates what critics of mega dams 
have been saying for a while and opponents of the dominant developmental 
model are now using that shot in the arm to reinvigorate their fight 
against cruelly disastrous social and environmental costs of big dams.


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