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DAM-L LS: NDTV (India) week long special on Narmada (fwd)
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subject: LS: NDTV (India) week long special on Narmada
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Here are the transcripts of stories on the Narmada struggle by NDTV. It
starts off with a story on the WCD report.
Source: www.ndtv.com
-------------------------
World Commission on Dams report helps boost fight against Sardar Sarovar
Project
Monday, November 20
-------------------------
(New Delhi): After a twelve year gap, when the Supreme Court last month
said that construction on the Sardar Sarovar dam should begin, many thought
it was the end of the road for thousands of villagers and the decade long
struggle against the dam. The World Commission on Dams (WCD) report has
come as a great boost to what many thought was a flagging fight against the
Sardar Sarovar Project.
Last week, thousands of villagers from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya
Pradesh all bound by the river Narmada were in the capital to ensure their
voices were heard. They appealed to the President, stormed the office of
the Narmada Control Authority and met the president of the World Bank.
Noorji Padvi, a resident of Danel village, Maharashtra, informs, "We went
to meet the President. He shook hands with us, made us sit and listened to
us. And after that he said he would talk to the Prime Minister and think
about the issues we raised."
The WCD report is a product of two years of intensive study by members
representing all sides of the controversial project, including financiers,
builders and the anti-dam lobby.
Although the report says that dams can make a significant contribution to
human development, it points out that an unacceptable price has been paid
in too many cases, especially in social and environmental terms. According
to the report, in the last 50 years 40 million to 80 million people have
been displaced by dams worldwide and many of them were not resettled or
compensated. It also states that the benefits of these projects have been
distributed in a highly unfair manner, which questions the real value of
many dams.
As per its recommendations, free and prior informed consent of the tribal
population is necessary before construction of big dams. The project should
actively involve people who will be affected by it and the alternatives to
big dams must be explored before such projects are cleared.
The report, which carries considerable moral authority, vindicates the
arguments and issues raised by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). Medha
Patkar, President, NBA, said, "The World Bank president had to commit to
the audience that they will study the report in-depth and take it to more
than 180 governments. They will discuss it and take a stand, as well as
review their policies and present plans in the context of the report."
However, will all this affect the situation on the ground in the Sardar
Sarovar project? The government says not much difference would be made.
According to the Water Secretary Zahoor Hassan, "The Sardar Sarovar project
is not being financed by the World Bank or by any other such international
financial agencies. It is being funded entirely with our own
resources--from the Government of India and the states and I don't think
this report can have any impact so far as Sardar Sarovar project is concerned."
Meanwhile, in their very last hope from the judiciary, NBA activists are
waiting for their review petition to come up in the Supreme Court, which
asks for construction on the dam to be stopped. Sripad Dharmadhikari of NBA
said, "We are certainly going to bring to the court's notice that here is
the World Commission on Dams which has gone through an intense study of two
years where thousand of experts have contributed and this is what it says."
Ms. Patkar adds, "Public hearings on the Sardar Sarovar dam are being
planned and the NBA is now going back to the valley to explain the report
to the villagers there."
The WCD report has certainly helped in bolstering the cause of the people
of the valley, even though the villagers there continue to be fuelled by
the knowledge of their own reality. One affected villager complains, "There
are lakhs of people in the Sardar Sarovar valley. How can the government
provide for all of them? Where will the government get the jungles from,
the rivers from, the land for fodder, the fish and vegetables? An adivasi
is like a fish. Once it is out of the water, the fish is dead. And if the
adivasi is out of his jungle, he will not survive."
-------------------------
Sardar Sarovar dam will rise to the sinking of irreplaceable cultural heritages
Tuesday, November 21
-------------------------
(Narmada Valley): On the occasion of Kartik Purnima, the first full moon
after Diwali, the hundreds of ghats along the Narmada, an aarti to the
river goddess is performed, which is perhaps the last time.
For centuries, people who have lived along and been sustained by the 1,300
km long river have undertaken a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to her. The
source of the river lies in the Mikal ranges in Madhya Pradesh, from where
it reaches Bharuch in Gujarat and stops at the innumerable shrines and
memorial spots that signpost the ancient route.
A regular pilgrim said, "If goddess Narmada's natural flow is dammed and
she is converted into small pools of water, how will the devotees
circumambulate her? Sadly, a ritual practiced since the beginning of the
river's existence will end."
When the waters of the Sardar Sarovar reservoir rise, it will not be just
archaeological evidence and living temples that will be submerged, but a
rich heritage of art and architecture. Beneath today's villages in the
Narmada valley lies evidence of habitation that spirals back to
pre-historic times. In the 1960s, excavations at the village of Navadatoli
by the country's pioneering archaeologist HD Sankalia revealed the largest
single Malwa culture site, dates back to around 1800 BC. But once the
village was marked for submergence, the site was covered up again.
The late 18th century temple of Hapeshwar with its murals falling between
folk and classical traditions depict one of the most beautiful raslilas of
Krishna, ever painted. It also depicts other stories from Hindu mythology.
The government has attempted to replace the old temple by building a brand
new cement and marble replica of the Somnath temple, but not everyone is
satisfied. "The adivasis have great faith in Hapeshwar. The new temple
cannot replace the old one. This is part of our cultural heritage and while
some pandits have accepted cash compensation for relocating temples, they
are afraid that the new ones will lack the sanctity of the old. The
sanctity is linked to the spot. It will be destroyed if temples are
shifted. People will not come with the same feeling," complained a local
resident.
The small village of Gangli was submerged in 1970 by a flood in the
Narmada. After the waters receded, the people returned and appealed to the
local government, politicians and religious leaders to restore the
beautiful wooden temple of Mahavir that had been damaged, but the demand
was never met. Expressing his sentiments on this, another villager said,
"For one temple and one mosque in Ayodhya our politicians plunged the
country into chaos and now when hundreds of living temples and mosques in
the Narmada Valley will be drowned, they are silent. These are in small
villages and nobody cares about the feelings of poor people."
The villagers say that those who pose as saviours of religion rush into the
arena only for political gain or profit. "The VHP is against the
construction of the Tehri Dam on the Ganges because she is sacred. Then why
are they quiet about the Sardar Sarovar? Is the Narmada less sacred? The
VHP is not opposing it because they are funded by the Gujarati community.
It has nothing to do with religious sentiments," said the villagers.
The gods at Koteshwar will have to find another abode as sacred groves,
ancient pilgrimage centres and archaeological sites that contain an
uninterrupted account of human occupation in the Narmada Valley since the
stone age get submerged. Only then can the dams that Nehru called the
temples of modern India be built.
-------------------------
Sardar Sarovar: Not all is quiet in the Narmada Valley as dam threatens
livelihood of residents
Wednesday, November 22
-------------------------
(Bhopal): Narmada has been the lifeline for people living in a vast stretch
of land in Central India. The controversial Sardar Sarovar dam, one of the
four big dams under construction on the Narmada, now threatens not only the
regions fragile eco system but the livelihoods of lakhs of people who live
in the Narmada Valley.
This dam has spawned debate on the probable benefits and the human costs it
will impose on the people. On the banks of the Narmada as another morning
breaks over, its difficult to believe that its beautiful valley is about to
be destroyed. But it's not just some of the oldest and rare forests and
wildlife that will submerge under millions of tons of reservoir water --
even the lives of thousands of people are about to change radically. The
people who will bear the brunt of this invasion on their homes, land and
way of living are worried and on the verge of desperation. The Narmada is
the life-blood for a variety of unique professions.
The people who live in the village of Bakawa, have for hundreds of years
collected stones and boulders from the riverbed and carved them into
Shivlings, the emblem of Shiva. The Shivlings can be found in thousands of
temples across the valley and around India. Soon, the entire village of
Bakawa will be under hundreds of feet of water. "Our livelihood is
dependant on the Narmada. We take the sand and the stone from the riverbed.
Shivlings are our business, if they drown we will drown with them," says a
resident of Bakawa.
Downstream on the Narmada in another village, Chota Badada, the boatmen say
Emperor Akbar gave their ancestors the right to fish here. "This is our
traditional occupation from the time of my forefathers. We have no other
skills. During the monsoon the river rises and for four months we have no
work. If the dam is built the monsoon will last our whole lifetime," said a
boatman.
Once Chota Badada is submerged, the fishermen and their families will be
robbed of their livelihoods and will have no means of earning their living.
"Today I can catch more than a kilogram of fish. When the dam is built
where will I get big fishing nets from, where will I get big boats from
which are so expensive.
Even these small boats cost between Rs.10,000 and Rs. 20,000 for which the
government does not give us loans," said a boatman in Chota Badada.
The villagers who have been displaced by the Sardar Sarovar are now working
as cheap labour employed in road construction. They live in the slums of
all big towns in the Narmada Valley from Jabalpur to Ankleshwar and Surat
in Gujarat. They are uneducated and skilled only in their traditional
occupations which are entirely dependant on the Narmada and its economy.
The village people have fears of what the future holds for them and the
possible hostility they might encounter in other villages they might go to
restart their lives. Potters, who make their products on the banks of the
river, are worried that once they are displaced they will be stopped from
selling in other markets.
"Nobody even let's me sit and sell my pots at the Monday market at Anjad.
It is their home and land so why should they. Wherever I go I will need
land, water and soil, like here. Where will I find this," said one of the
potters.
The land along the banks of the Narmada is amongst the most fertile in the
country. Farmers are used to very high yields. They proudly show their
crop, their herds of cows, their stacks of cotton and the network of
pipelines, which irrigate fields up to 5 km away from the river. "I own 38
acres of land on which I have planted banana, cotton and arandi. I earn
lakhs from my crop and now it is going to be submerged," said one of the
people who will have to leave his home as work on the dam progresses.
They want land in return for their land. So far it has turned out into an
impossible demand because the Madhya Pradesh government says it has no
extra land to give them and Gujarat has land that is not as productive. "I
don't know any other work. Even if the government gives money as
compensation, I will not know how to use it. I will waste it," said a
farmer wistfully.
The Supreme Court has given clearance to go ahead with the construction of
the dam and dismissed the petition, which challenged the wisdom behind
building big dams. While the viability and benefits of large dams is being
questioned -- the people of Narmada will pay the biggest cost as they stand
to lose more than just their livelihood.
----------------------
Sardar Sarovar Project: Random rehabilitation for the ousted proves
unsatisfactory
Thursday, November 23
----------------------
(Bhopal): There is no national rehabilitation policy in India. Rehab
depends entirely on project authorities and concerned state governments.
Madhya Pradesh has declared in an affidavit in court that it has no land to
settle the ousted. The Gujarat government is making some kind of an effort,
but the human tragedy of uprootment is too vast and complex and the number
of villagers displaced too large.
More than 140 families from Krishnapura in Gujarat are going back to their
original village 14 years after they shifted there because they are being
displaced by the Sardar Sarovar project. The families are shifting to an
uncertain future and are leaving behind a trail of broken promises.
Over the last few days, the villagers had been getting ready to move back
because the Gujarat government failed in their case to deliver the promised
rehabilitation package of five acres of productive land to every family,
who would lose more than a quarter of their holding. In the vast sprawl of
fertile land, they were largely given those bits that were stony and
covered by the deadly dab grass that is impossible to uproot. Absentee
landlords had been glad to rid themselves of this land and allow the
government to acquire it for rehabilitation.
One of those relocated to this place said, "Dab grass has made this land
useless and it keeps increasing. We have tried everything to get rid of it,
but failed. We asked the government several times to give us land somewhere
else, but they refuse. They say that there is nothing wrong."
Besides the land, practically no other facility was provided. A villager
lamented, "Neither a temple nor cremation ground nor a medical centre was
built. Between 50 families, they had to provide one well for drinking
water. We are 170 of us and there is only this half-dug well that was
started four years ago."
Villagers in Madhya Pradesh have always had the option of going to Gujarat,
since their government was clear it had no land to rehabilitate them. In
the last decade, many of the people, particularly the landless and small
farmers who did go, have returned. Among them is Moti Singh Chauhan and 52
other families. He was shown land in Sonipur village in Gujarat's
Panchmahal district from a moving jeep. While the land was fertile, there
were a host of other problems that made living there impossible. Moti Singh
explained, "Some of the neighbouring villages were hostile to us. They
would let their cattle loose on our fields at night. Our crop was
destroyed. The place was also overrun by thieves."
Eighty per cent of those who have been ousted because of the potential dam
are from Madhya Pradesh. The courts had directed every affected village to
be shifted as a whole unit. Instead, people have been scattered to
different rehabilitation sites. The result of this has been that social
links and communities have been broken up. The vast number that remain,
live with the fear and with the burden of eviction. A villager said, "Our
daughters get married, but people hesitate in giving their daughters to
villages which bear the stigma of submergence. Earlier we had no problem,
but now we are shunned."
There are no real statistics available on how many people have been
displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Project so far and also about how many
times this cycle has taken place.
----------------------
Battling for the same turf: Industry may consume Narmada waters meant for
drought-hit areas
Friday, November 24
----------------------
(Baroda): As the water table drops lower and lower in Gujarat, it's a
battle between industry and the people for this precious resource -- a
battle that has begun even before the dam project is complete. IPCL, a
petrochemical plant in Baroda's industrial area, will soon be working below
capacity. Two successive failed monsoons and hardly any water are the
reasons for this imminent and drastic change. It's time for emergency
measures. After 20 years, the plant has just dug four new tubewells that
will give it almost three million gallons of water a day. But even this is
not enough. The plant needs more than eight times that amount and that
means serious trouble for IPCL.
Mr. S K Anand, Director Operations, IPCL, explained, "We might have to stop
some of our plants in the month of March. Only the plants which consume
less water will be kept running. We have started recycling. We use about 25
mgd of water and slowly through conservation we have reduced our
consumption to 15 mgd, which is 33 per cent. We are further cutting down,
but beyond that is not possible." He leaves his sentence trailing, which
reflects the uncertainty of the situation.
But while IPCL may have the muscle to survive, it's the smaller chemical
and fertilizer companies that have been most severely hit by the shortage
of water. So for hundreds of industries here, the waters of the Sardar
Sarovar canal will be a crucial lifeline. Industrialists say that it is
their only hope of survival. According to Paresh Saraiya, Director of
Transpek India Ltd, "Industry which is drawing water from the borewells
will benefit because the overall water table, which is badly depleted, will
increase and that will solve quality related problems of water."
On the completion of the Narmada dam, 800 million gallons of water will be
available per day, out of which the share of industry is 150 mgd. Industry
in Baroda alone uses upto 50-60 mgd and needs more if it has to expand.
Many here believe that industry has reached saturation point and that
there's no more room to grow. Some industrialists now want the government
to change land laws to allow them to turn their excess industrial land into
farmland, so that they can use it to grow cash crops.
Mr. Atul Patel, Ex-pres, Fed of Gujarat Ind, said, "When water is
available, there are a lot of industries which have got land. They can
think of cash crops, though industrial land is not allowed for agricultural
purposes. But time is changing and the government may allow them to grow
something."
The authorities of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam have repeatedly
declared that farmers will not be allowed to grow sugarcane at the head of
the canal because it is a water-guzzling cash crop. But industry located in
the command area hopes that this will change. Mr. Patel added, "We would
definitely look at cash crops, which will get us profit immediately.
Depending on the quality of the soil, we can also grow sugarcane."
With the growing demands of industry in the command area of the Sardar
Sarovar dam, there are now major fears that the waters meant for the
drought hit areas of North Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch at the tail end of
the canal will never actually reach there. This was one consideration that
led the government to support research for Kalpsar, a complementary project
that envisages building a much smaller dam on the Bay of Khambat without
displacing people.
Mr. Anil S Kane, Vice Chancellor, MS University, Baroda says, "As Narmada
will supply water to the central portion of Gujarat, about 90 per cent of
Saurashtra and 95 per cent of Kutch will not get irrigation water. Of
course, they will get drinking water which is a small quantity, but if you
want industry to come there and large scale irrigation projects to come,
then Narmada will not reach there."
As the many players in the region try to change the rules of the game after
it has begun, the story of who benefits and who pays the cost for the
Sardar Sarovar dam has still not been fully told.
------------------
Waiting for Narmada waters: Saurashtra's farmers pin their hopes on Sardar
Sarovar
Saturday, November 25
------------------
(Coonwar): At Coonwar in North Gujarat's Patan district, farmers gathered
at a panchayat meeting are discussing water. They have spent years waiting
- with some concern, enormous restraint and fairness - for the mythical,
magical Narmada.
In fact, farmers of the entire Saurashtra region have pinned their hopes on
the Sardar Sarovar dam to ease the water scarcity that they face. But
studies show that much of the water will not reach these areas. Yet, there
is a complete lack of all other alternatives to resolve the water problem.
Some of the typical responses from the farmers of Coonwar went, "The
Gujarat government must ensure that people displaced by the dam are
rehabilitated. Each and every villager should get his due. These families
must not suffer." Another villager said, "The waters of Narmada should come
to the drought prone areas of Gujarat - Kutch, Saurashtra and North Gujarat
- as there is acute shortage of water here. This is a desert area. It has
no rivers and there is no industry either. So logically, we should get a
much bigger share than South Gujarat. They have a river, a dam and more
rainfall than us." Yet another farmer said, "Twenty years ago, someone had
come to take measurements. They said it was for the canal. But so far
nothing has happened. I have grown tired of waiting for the Narmada to
come. Now, only when I see the water will I know it is here. I will not
believe anyone or anything till then."
In village after village in the region, man and beast share the small pool
of brackish water for bathing and washing. Even this pool will dry up with
the approach of summer. Water tankers stop coming with the approach of the
monsoons--for the last two years the rains have not come at all.
The borewells drilled by the panchayat or the government provides drinking
water for only two hours a day and is the sole source of water for more
than a 1,000 people. It will be replaced by the Narmada, as yet only a
distant promise. "For years I have been hearing the authorities say, 'The
Narmada is coming'. This is the excuse they have used to do provide no
wells for us. How will we survive?" one angry villager asked, while another
revealed, "My own tubewell failed 2-3 months ago. But I decided against
investing in a new one because the Narmada is coming. So why should I waste
Rs. 10-12 lakh on a new tubewell?"
The farmers here have been ruined by the desert, which is slowly creeping
upon agricultural land located near the small Rann of Kutch, and the
scarcity of water. "Farmers are forced to send their children out to work
as labourers. There is large-scale migration from the villages in search of
jobs. If the waters of the Narmada come, there will be no need for this.
People can cultivate and live off the land itself", one farmer said
hopefully, while another said, "If there is no water our crop suffers. We
grow cotton but are not able to compete in the market - either in terms of
quantity or quality."
Till 15 years ago there was not a single tubewell in the area, but with the
cultivation of jeera, which is a water-guzzling crop, hundreds of wells
were drilled. Now water is found at more than 1000 ft below ground level.
Local officials have never been interested in stopping this abuse of
groundwater as their money comes from these wells. The villagers are now
apprehensive about the concentration of the entire waters of the Narmada in
the hands of one single authority. According to one of the farmers,
"Officials take money from each tubewell owner - at least Rs. 2000 - and
give electricity only for eight hours. How can a farmer work like this?
With the Narmada project corruption will increase."
For years, successive governments have exploited the emotive power of
thirst by convincing villagers in the region that the whole purpose of the
Sardar Sarovar project is to bring the waters of the Narmada to the
drought-prone regions of Kutch and Saurashtra, which lie at the very end of
the canal network. But long years of suffering and an indifferent
administration have made the farmers wonder if the waters will ever reach
them, and whether their distribution can ever be just and equitable.
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