"NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN"

                                                                      A Brief Introduction to the Narmada Issue

The controversy over large dams on the River Narmada has come to symbolise the struggle for a just and equitable society in India. The story is long and complicated and will take a long time to tell. In brief, the Government's plan is to build 30 large, 135 medium and 3000 small dams to harness the waters of the Narmada and its tributaries. The proponents of the dam claim that this plan would provide large amounts of water and electricity which are desperately required for the purposes of development.

Opponents of the dam question the basic assumptions of the Narmada Valley Development Plan and believe that its planning is unjust and inequitous and the cost-benefit analysis is grossly inflated in favour of building the dams.

Large numbers of poor and underprivileged communities (mostly tribals and dalits) are being dispossessed of their livelihood and even their ways of living to make way for dams being built on the basis of incredibly dubious claims of common benefit and "national interest". No purported benefits can be used to justify the denial of the fundamental rights of individuals in a democratic society

At a more abstract level, the questions that arise in the Narmada Struggle challenge the dominant model of development (of which Sardar Sarovar dam is a prime example) that holds out the chimerical promise of material wealth through modernisation but perpetuates an inequitous distribution of resources and wreaks social and environmental havoc.

Sardar Sarovar takes up over 80% of Gujarat's irrigation budget but has only 1.6% of cultivable land in Kutch, 9% of cultivable land in Saurashtra and 20% cultivable land in North Gujarat in its command area.

In simple terms, the struggle over the river Narmada holds a mirror to our national face and challenges our commitment to professed ideals of justice, equality and democracy.

                                                                Map of proposed large dams on the Narmada

                                     Advantages

Considerable revenue for government

One could expect production of 1450 MW of electricity.

More pure water to meet the needs of about 40 million people or so from about 1000s of villages and towns.

Sardar Sarovar dam alone would irrigate almost 1.8 million hectares of land in Gujarat and an additional 73,000 hectares in the dry neighboring state of Rajasthan

Providing potable water to over 8,000 Gujarati villages and135 urban centers

                            

                                           Problems!

Displacement of 2,50,000 people

Rehabilitation and resettlement of people

Loss of agricultural land

Destruction of flora and fauna  

                                           Proponents

MedhaPatkar

Baba Amte

Dalits and Adivasi (indigenous people).

ArundhatiRoy

Contributions from art and film world ( tomention AamirKhan)

                                                                         Some of the strong proponents

                                                                  

                                                           MedhaPatkar

"If people like you who consume not more than 40 litres of water a day & don't get access to it, then the Government has no right to be in power".

Medha Patkar is one of India's most well-known environmental and human rights activists. As leader and co-founder of Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement), she has been spearheading themovement against the building of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river in Gujarat, giving particular attention to the rehabilitation of the poor who are being displaced by the project.

                                                      How did they do it?

5,000 people marched on the Narmada Valley Development authority offices forcing them to close.
 March 1990-10,000 protesters blocked the highway from Bombay for two days .
May 1990- 2,000 people staged a sit-in outside the prime ministers house in Delhi.

Christmas Day 1990 March- 3,000 people walked, 100km, which took a week to the dam site, once they got there Medha Patkar and 6 others went on a hunger strike demanding the government suspend work on the dam and hold an independent review. It lasted 22 days until they broke fast this made Narmada an international issue.

Media campaigns

Garnering support of celebrities from the art and the film world and other such methods.

The leading activists of the movement Medha Patkar and Baba Amte, together received the Right to Livelihood Award in 1991 for their contribution to the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

                                                  Impacts

  Ø Environmental impacts

   Ø Social impacts

   Ø Health impacts

                                                                                What can really be done

·        Not only promise but also do provide shelter to those who had to be displaced

·        Rehabilitation of the poor

·        Give compensations if they have had any

·        Provide drinking water to those who cant avail of it

                                                                    Current status of the Dam:

·        The Sardar Sarovar dam height will be raised to 110m.

·        This will displace 12,000 families without any resettlement or displacement program.

·        Protests are occurrence regularly and they will continue to do so until the dam is stopped.

If water is so scarce, why is there a water park in Gujarat ,where people are dying of thirst ??