Narmada Dam Project

I just watched this video (http://www.globalonenessproject.org/video/Medha-Patkar/1) on the Narmada River Dam.

For those of you who don't know, dam projects have been viewed with much pride in India beginning with Jawaharlal Nehru in the 50s. It was believed these dams could be used to power the newly born India into a super power status.

In the past 20 years India has become the largest recepient of funds from the World Bank, much of it for these dam projects.

Specifically Gujarat has a serious water shortage problem. However this dam will not be a solution. A simple wikipedia search will yield the impact of hydroelectricity, so I will not go into that. The impact on people will be huge: farmers who depend on the water and the nutrients in the water, those who live downstream, people who live along the canal system. Up to 200000 will be displaced, this number does not include the number of people whos livelyhood will be affected (http://www.irn.org/wcd/narmada.shtml).

Cui bono? World Bank, international contractors (who are all out of their dam building jobs in their own country so they go to the developing world), Indian contractors, and Indian politicians.

The solution will not be simple, however this does not seem like the right way to go. Personally, in my humble opinion, if there is a place in the world where sustainable energy can be used effectively, it is India.

See:
http://www.narmada.org/
http://www.irn.org/programs/india/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narmada_Bachao_Andolan

Video:
http://www.globalonenessproject.org/video/Medha-Patkar/1



PEACE