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Medha Patkar Debunks Big-Dams Idea

by Staff Reporter , The Times of India - 29 November 2000

MUMBAI: Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Medha Patkar, at a meeting held in the city on Tuesday, attempted to debunk the idea that big dams are the best way to solve water and power shortages.

``The question of big dams is a question of water. Water for whom and at what cost,'' she said. Ms Pakar pointed out that despite the fact that hundreds of dams had been built in India, large areas of the country suffer from water scarcity. ``In fact, two thirds of the irrigation budget is spent on large dams. Yet, it has not solved the problem of water supply.''

Addressing a gathering of the city's elite at a Rotary function, Ms Patkar said that the water from the ``Sardar Sarovar project will not reach the rural and drought prone districts it is intended for. The water will flow into those areas only if cities on the way don't take the water.''

Using a map to show how very little of the water from the proposed Narmada dam would reach drought-prone Kutch, she said, ``Much of the water will only go to the cities and the big industries. ''

Added environmental economist Vijay Paranjpe, ``The reason big dams fail is that the people who need the water are dispersed while the dam, built in the central basin of the valley, has a centrifugal effect.''

Citing the recent report of the World Commission on Dams, Ms Patkar said that big dams only produced 50 per cent of the planned benefits. ``The WCD report shows that the costs in terms of human displacement and ecological degradation is too high,'' she said. Speaking of the Sardar Sarovar project, she noted that while Rs 44,000 crore was the literal cost of the project, several hundred villages would be submerged and lakhs of people displaced. ``The minority judgment of Justice Bharucha acknowledges the fact that no impact studies or financial plan was done before the decision was taken,'' she said. ``None of the local people were involved in the planning process either.''

She also noted that Maharashtra would only get 27 per cent of the 50 megawatts of power from the project. ``The state has a capacity of 90,000 megawatts but 60 per cent of the rural area is still without electricity,'' she noted.

Ms Patkar suggested that the solutions lay in using the existing dams effectively and concentrating on small projects like water harvesting. ``Several dams are still incomplete,'' she said.

``16,000 villages in Maharashtra and Gujarat have tried watershed development effectively. In such projects, the benefits go to the people directly, the costs are low and the distribution is not a problem,'' said Mr Paranjpe, adding that the supreme court had not examined all the economic aspects of the project.

Speaking to the press later, Ms Patkar said that the NBA had never taken any foreign funding, even from international awards. The NBA has filed an appeal for a review of the supreme court judgment permitting construction of the dam to continue.

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