[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
dam-l LS: PR: Ogden Corp Barraged With Calls to Quit Maheshwar
PRESS RELEASE
APRIL 25, 2000
CONTACT:
Patrick McCully
Campaigns Director
International Rivers Network
Tel: 510-848-1155
Email: patrick@irn.org
OGDEN CORP. BARRAGED WITH CALLS URGING COMPANY TO WITHDRAW FROM
NOTORIOUS INDIAN DAM
NY-based Ogden Corporation is today being barraged with calls, faxes
and emails urging the company to withdraw from the controversial
Maheshwar Dam on India's Narmada River. The 400 megawatt Maheshwar
hydropower project is fiercely opposed by the Narmada Bachao Andolan
(Save the Narmada Movement), which represents tens of thousands of
local people, as well as by other Indian and international human
rights and environment groups because of its social, environmental
and economic impacts.
International Rivers Network (IRN) and Friends of the Narmada, an
international coalition of activists fighting dams on the Narmada
River, have organized "Barrage Ogden Day" as part of a long-term
campaign against foreign involvement in destructive dams on the
Narmada River.
"By supporting the Maheshwar Dam, Ogden is contributing to human
rights abuses and the destruction of the livelihoods of tens of
thousands of people. Both local people and their international
supporters are determined that this dam will not be built. Ogden
should cut its losses and get out now," says Patrick McCully,
Campaigns Director of IRN.
The Maheshwar Dam would affect more than 35,000 farmers, wage
laborers, fishers and crafts people in 61 villages and submerge about
1,100 hectares of rich agricultural land. Independent investigations
have found that resettlement planning for the project is totally
inadequate and that no land is available for resettlement as required
by law. Project opponents claim that power from the dam will be
prohibitively expensive and that Indians will have to subsidize
foreign involvement in the uneconomic project.
People affected by the dam are determined that they will never let it
be built. Over the last two years, thousands of farming families have
occupied the dam site nine times, barricaded all roads leading to the
dam for three months, and held mass demonstrations and hunger strikes
opposing the dam.
On March 23, Ogden signed a Memorandum of Intent to develop the
project, as part of U.S. President Bill Clinton's state visit to
India. Chicago firm Harza Engineering Company of Chicago has been
contracted as a consultant to Ogden. The dam's serious financial
risks and the intense opposition to it caused U.S. power utility
PacifiCorp to back out of the project in 1998, and German utilities
Bayernwerk and VEW Energie to pull out in April 1999.
Ogden Corporation is a conglomerate with interests in the airline
services, entertainment, environmental and energy sectors. The
company has no experience with large dam projects. Its current
portfolio contains only six small hydroelectric dams (four in the US
and two in Costa Rica) with an average generating capacity of about
20 megawatts each.
Some of the company's ventures include the Wet 'n Wild Waterpark in
Las Vegas, the
Iguazu Grand Hotel Resort & Casino in Brazil, and the expansion of
Bogota's Eldorado International Airport. Ogden has been embroiled in
controversy because of its promotion of waste incinerators and its
blocking of efforts by some of its food service employees to
unionize. Fortune magazine recently voted Ogden's board of directors
as one of America's worst.
When Ogden's interest in the Maheshwar Dam was first reported in late
1999, local people wrote to the company insisting that Ogden
representatives should visit the affected villages before deciding on
their investment. In February 2000, nearly 300 elected
representatives of the affected area sent Ogden a resolution opposing
the project.
The only encounter between Ogden and affected people occurred two
days after the Memorandum of Intent was signed. Ogden Vice President
Kent Burton was helicoptered into the damsite where he encountered
four villagers who had forced their way past security officials to
speak to him. Burton later tried to visit one of the affected
villages and was unable to get out of his car because it was
surrounded by angry villagers.
Despite this hostile reaction, Ogden has said that the project
"offers significant benefits to the people of the region" who are
"voicing their support in increasing numbers and are encouraging us
to move toward completion as rapidly as possible."
For more information, go to www.narmada.org or www.irn.org or contact
Patrick McCully, International Rivers Network, California, US, +1
510-848-1155 (w) +1 510-528-2930 (h) or patrick@irn.org
Venu Govindu, Friends of the Narmada, New Jersey, US, +1 609-799-5907 (h)
+1 609-951-2823 (w) or venu@narmada.org
Chittaroopa Palit, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Badwani, Madhya Pradesh, +91-272
9022464 or nobigdam@bom4.vsnl.net.in
Himanshu Thakkar, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, India, +91
11 748 4654 or cwaterp@del3.vsnl.net.in
International Rivers Network (IRN) is a US-based nongovernmental
organization which supports local communities working to protect
their rivers and watersheds. IRN works to halt destructive river
development projects, and to encourage equitable and sustainable
methods of meeting needs for water, energy and flood management.