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World report on dams boosts Narmada project The Economic Times of India - 18 November 2000 CONTRARY to expectations, the report by the World Commission on Dams released in London has come as a major boost to the Narmada dam project in India.The report, released here on Thursday, was expected to condemn the construction of big dams outright and call for a moratorium on building large dams. But the report stopped far short of condemning big dams and in fact acknowledged the contribution made by big dams. The report mentions the Narmada project several times without being critical of it. The report says India has a good record in resettling displaced people -- the one count on which many critics have campaigned to attack the project. The Narmada dam issue has been hogging the headlines in India recently with the Supreme Court last month giving the go-ahead to the construction of the massive Sardar Sarovar project in Gujarat, causing a major setback to the anti-big dam campaign, led by the Narmada Bachao Andolan. The world report in its case study says in India it found "agriculture and homestead land being provided even to those who were landless as a part of the resettlement process." In some cases "previously marginalised farmers were given more land than they had originally." In speaking of the benefits of dams built in India the report says that "a dam can effectively take a resource from one group and allocate it to another." The report says, "Dams have made an important and significant contribution to human development and the benefits derived from them have been considerable." The report, however, does speak of several difficulties caused by the construction of large dams. The long-awaited report was released in London by Nelson Mandela. He had been expected to spearhead the anti-dam campaign, but he spoke instead of his own need to order the building of a large dam when he was president of South Africa. The dam was needed to supply power to Johannesburg and water to the Lesotho hills around it. Mandela said: "We knew the controversy and complexities of such an undertaking and had to carefully negotiate the political minefields and legal challenges, taking into consideration environmental, financial, social and economic impacts. A dam -- a means to an end -- which was one option among others, emerged as our best option under the circumstances." Mandela raised the question whether in retrospect he had done the right thing. "Was it our best tool? Were other options overlooked? Perhaps I believe ours was the right choice at the time. But no one knew for sure. There is a part of me, and I believe my then minister of water affairs resented having to choose the lesser of two evils: relocate some so that all may have water, or forgo a dam, thus slowing down human development and increasing urban stress." Mandela said: "Some say large dams offer solutions; others say large dams create problems. The commission, as I understand from its report, to its credit says neither." The chairman of the World Commission on Dams, Kader Asmal, who is now minister of education in South Africa, pointed out that "the truth is that no typical dam exists." He said: "Is development paralysis the same thing as success?" Medha Patkar, leader of the NBA who was present at the launch, said the commission had not gone all the way "because of its composition." She said there were many shortcomings in the report because "we could not convince each of its members." Patkar, who was a member of the commission, has added a note to the report that expresses her opposition to dams. But she said that the report also contained warnings enough to people seeking to build large dams. "The report brings out many of the negative impacts of the construction of large dams," she said. "It brings out the social and environmental impact of dam building and its impact in making people destitute." "It also shows the flawed decision-making process behind the construction of many dams and it also establishes that dams have not been as economically beneficial as planned." - India Abroad News Service
Copyright © 1999, 2000 The World Commission on Dams | ||||||||||||||||||||||
