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dam-l <fwd> IPS article on International Dam Day
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From owner-irn-safrica@igc.org Fri Mar 13 13:52:08 1998
From: owner-irn-safrica@igc.org
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 09:16:02 -0800 (PST)
Message-Id: <199803131716.JAA12198@igc7.igc.org>
>ENVIRONMENT: Protests Mark First International Dam Day
To: "undisclosed-recipients:;"@centaur.achilles.net
>
> By IPS Correspondents
>
>>WASHINGTON, Mar 13 (IPS) - Villagers in India's Narmada valley
>>traditionally have begun the spring festival of 'Holi' with all-
>>night dancing around bonfires. This year they will be burning dams
>>in effigy.
>
>> The villagers will light their fires Friday night on the eve of
>>the first 'International Day of Action Against Dams and for
>>Rivers', according to Sripad Dharmadhikary of Narmada Bachaon
>>Andolan, or 'Save the Narmada Movement'. The group borrowed from
>>tradition to celebrate a recent victory in stopping the Maheshwar
>>dam and to show opposition to other dams planned for the river.
>
>> Events aimed at highlighting rivers in crisis and promoting
>>their sustainable and equitable management are planned in some 20
>>countries Saturday, according to the International Rivers Network,
>>a California-based non-governmental organisation (NGO).
>
>> The decision to hold an international day of action was taken
>>last year in Curitiba, Brazil at an international meeting of
>>people affected by dams. For nearly a decade, Mar. 14 has been a
>>national 'day of struggle' against dams in Brazil, where IRN
>>estimates some 250,000 people have been displaced by the
>>obstructions.
>
>> The commemmoration comes at a time of flux - and hope - for the
>>dam-affected and their advocates. The nascent World Commission on
>>Dams was launched last month and in May is expected to begin a two-
>>year study of the effect dams have had in developing countries.
>
>> At one point, negotiators said reaching agreement on the
>>Commission's membership was ''mission impossible'' but a
>>compromise was struck between environmental and indigenous
>>peoples' groups and their long-time nemeses. These included dam
>>builders, governments looking to harness rivers for irrigation and
>>electricity, and the World Bank and other financiers of those
>>ambitions.
>
>> The Commission is scheduled to complete its studies in the year
>>2000 and to issue recommendations for future projects. NGOs had
>>lobbied for a moratorium on dam building until then but were
>>rebuffed. As a consequence, activists have their work cut out for
>>them in many parts of the world:
>
>> - China has begun to build the world's largest hydroelectric
>>facility - the Three Gorges Dam - on the Yangtze river. U.S. and
>>Japanese financiers and European export-promotion agencies have
>>supported the project, due for completion in 2009. More than one
>>million people face displacement when the dam floods some 32,000
>>hectares of farmland, 13 cities, 140 towns, and countless
>>villages.
>
>> - The World Bank and Asian Development Bank are backing plans for
>>a network of projects in Indo-China's Mekong delta region. These
>>include Nam Theun 2, a dam that could double the foreign-currency
>>earnings of cash-strapped Laos - or bury it with foreign debt if
>>the electricity generated cannot be sold at a profit to
>>neighbouring Thailand. The area to be flooded by the dam's
>>reservoir includes forests believed to be home to undiscovered
>>plant and animal species as well as human communities that have
>>yet to make contact with modern society.
>
>> - Namibia is seeking funds for a new hydro-electric project on
>>the Cunene river, over local protest and the concerns of
>>international environmental groups. If the dam is built, activists
>>charged, the resulting lake will flood 380 square kilometers of
>>land inhabited by thousands of semi-nomadic Ovahimba people or
>>'Himba herders', semi-nomadic pastoralists who live entirely off
>>their cattle, sheep and goats on the Namibia-Angola border.
>
>> - South African NGOs are seeking to block construction of the
>>Mohale dam on the Orange river in neighbouring Lesotho (where it
>>is called the Senqu river). The World Bank is to vote next month
>>on a 45-million-dollar loan for the dam, which would be the second
>>of five planned under the 'Lesotho Highlands Water Project',
>>designed primarily to divert water to South Africa's industrial
>>heartland and to pump much-needed foreign currency - through water
>>royalties - to cash-strapped Lesotho. Low-income South Africans,
>>facing water rate hikes to pay for the project, favour
>>conservation efforts and other alternatives; villagers in Lesotho
>>have decried the loss of farmlands and traditions amid an influx
>>of dam-builders.
>
>> - A U.S.-based engineering consortium is pressing state and
>>federal authorities in Argentina to approve plans to build the
>>Parana Medio dam on the Parana river, over the concerns of fishing
>>and ranching communities in the country's north-east. The project
>>threatens to displace families dependent on ranching, tourism, and
>>fishing, Jorge Cappato, director of the Argentina-based
>>environmental organisation Fundacion Proteger told IPS. ''This
>>sudden unemployment of tens of thousands of people can only result
>>in social disintegration and increasing urban violence.''
>
>> - Unemployment, alcoholism and violence have been among the
>>results of World Bank efforts to resettle and improve the living
>>standards of rural communities displaced by Brazil's Itaparica
>>dam, which was built without Bank funding. The resettlement effort
>>proved so disastrous that local communities took their concern to
>>the Bank's independent Inspection Panel. The lending agency's
>>executive directors, in a rare vote, overturned the Panel's
>>recommendations and handed the project back to Bank managers, who
>>have promised to correct their mistakes.
>
>> - Similar World Bank promises over the Yacyreta dam, built on the
>>Argentine-Paraguayan border, have yet to materialise, said Elias
>>Diaz Pena of Sobrevivencia, the Paraguayan affiliate of Friends of
>>the Earth. The countries, their binational commission in charge of
>>the project, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development
>>Bank all have been embroiled in what Argentine President Carlos
>>Menem lambasted as ''a monument to corruption.''
>
>> Some 50,000 people - mostly Paraguayans - face resettlement under
>>arrangements even the World Bank has admitted are woefully
>>inadequate. Officials' failure to keep appointments with civic
>>groups last month moved a group of Paraguayans to stage a hunger
>>strike. (END/IPS/aa-dk-an/98)
>
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Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 08:37:39 -0800
From: lori@irn.org (Lori Pottinger)
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Sender: owner-irn-safrica@igc.org
Subject: Protests Mark First International Dam Day
>
>Copyright 1998, Inter Press Service
To: irn-safrica@igc.apc.org
X-Sender: lori@pop.igc.apc.org
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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