DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Last Ditch Try at Saving the Narmada River

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Bharat Dogra

NEW DELHI, Mar 28 2006 (IPS) - For 20 years, thousands of people living on the banks of the Narmada river have kept their faith in India’s independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, and used non-violence to protest the building of a mammoth dam that will submerge their homes.

The government, however, has often retaliated with tear gas and arrests to their sit-ins and hunger fasts – most recently on Mar. 26 in the Indian capital, on scores of protestors from the Narmada Valley, in central India, who were camped outside the water ministry office for ten days.

Delhi Police released the protesters only after extracting an assurance that they would shift their sit-in to a nearby market, and out of the way of government officials who are deciding their future.

About 45,000 families will be displaced and 37,000 hectares of land submerged by the multipurpose Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), which is the largest and the most controversial of some 30 major dams planned on the westward-flowing Narmada river.

On reaching its planned total height of 136.5 metres it would, according to the government, irrigate two million hectares of land in the three states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and generate 1,450 Mw of electricity.

Construction has entered a crucial stage. On Mar 8, the Narmada Control Authority sanctioned raising the dam’s height from 110.64 metres to 121.92 metres. Thousands of families, mainly in central Madhya Pradesh state, will have to move before July-August this year when monsoon rains will flood their homes and farms.

The non-violent Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) or the movement to save the Narmada, has challenged the decision. The movement, led by Medha Patkar, has been fighting for the rights of the displaced people.

Patkar, who was among those arrested, explained that the decision ”cannot be taken till all people are rehabilitated as per the legally stipulated norm of two hectares of land per displaced household. Most of the displaced are in Madhya Pradesh and hardly any families there have been rehabilitated satisfactorily.”

Himanshu Thakkar, co-ordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, said: ”The Madhya Pradesh government has in fact expressed its inability to provide two hectares of land to each displaced family.”

The dam project on the border between Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, stands to benefit Gujarat and Rajasthan states more than Madhya Pradesh in terms irrigation. Madhya Pradesh will gain from the electricity generated.

Booker prize winning author Arundhati Roy, who has been outspoken in her support of the NBA, said the decision to raise the dam height ”violates every policy and the supreme court judgements”.

Ten members of parliament including Brinda Karat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), have sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention in rescinding the decision until the displaced are fully rehabilitated.

An NBA delegation that met the prime minister on Mar. 26 was told that he would review the situation, and take a decision later this week.

What is most significant is that federal minister for water resources Prof. Saifuddin Soz has himself taken the initiative to review the arbitrary decision of the Narmada Control Authority to raise the dam height.

In a press statement issued on Mar. 10, he asserted: “I have received complaints and representations that rehabilitation of the families affected by the Sardar Sarovar Dam has not been satisfactory and consequently, the clearance given by the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Sub-Group and Narmada Control Authority to raise the height of the Dam from 110.64 m to 121.92 m was premature.”

“My ministry and myself are committed to ensure that the rehabilitation of the project-affected families is ensured in letter and spirit and in consonance with orders of the Supreme Court of India on the subject.”

“I will, therefore, convene shortly a meeting of the Review Committee for Narmada Control Authority under my chairmanship and consider the case.”

As the decision of the NCA is reviewed, there are two alternatives. Firstly, instructions can be given to speed up rehabilitation within a stipulated date and construction work is stopped till this date.

Such an approach appears, at first glance, to be justified, but many questions have been raised on whether satisfactory rehabilitation is at all possible in the near future. Those participating in the protest sit-in, in Delhi, include people displaced years ago as the submerged area expanded.

Jamal Bhai and Khusal explained that several of them have not received the promised land or jobs. Many have not been compensated for the trees on their land. Some have been denied basic essentials like clean drinking water, while the overall living conditions at rehabilitation sites are said to be shocking.

Keeping in view the experiences of about 11,000 displaced families in the last two decades, the prospect of speeding up the resettlement of another 34,000 families in the near future appears to be remote indeed, particularly in Madhya Pradesh where the government has said it is unable to find land for most displaced people.

NBA supporters have argued that it may be wiser to limit the SSP into an approximately 110-metre high dam project. This can still save three-fourths of the affected people from displacement, apart from bringing other benefits, they say.

According to Thakkar, “such a solution can still provide the legitimate share of water to Gujarat and Rajasthan. In addition, it will save huge sums of money, which can be used for water conservation work, mainly in water scarce areas of Gujarat. There will be some loss of electricity benefits but this can be made up in other ways.”

Such a solution will have many additional benefits such as helping those threatened with indirect displacements, saving forest land, sites of archeological importance and reducing other hazards and adverse environmental impacts.

Above all, activists say, this will be a good way for the Indian government to acknowledge to its people that it cares for peaceful, democratic movements and demands based on justice and reason.