3 Day Fast at World Bank

> Sardar Sarovar and the Bank
> Angana Chatterji
>
> Statement at press conference -- fast at the World Bank. Washington DC.
> April 23, 2004
>
>
> Sardar Sarovar is the largest dam on the Narmada, one of 30 large, 135
> medium and 3,000 small dams planned on the river, whose watershed is home to about
> 20 million peasants and indigenous peoples. The reservoir will displace
> 200,000 people. Canals, colonies and afforestation will affect another 200,000.
> The reservoir will flood 91,000 acres of forest and agricultural land. About
> 50% percent of those affected will be indigenous people.
>
> In 1985, the World Bank approved $450 million for the Sardar Sarovar
> Project. Construction began in 1987. Consequently, there were persistent violations
> of the loan and credit agreements with the Government of India. Resistance
> lead to the Bank's withdrawal from the project in 1993. In 1994, the World Bank
> estimated project costs at US$11,400 million. Today the government projects
> four and a half billion dollars.
>
> In Sardar Sarovar, the dam height continues to rise without reciprocal
> rehabilitation or resettlement. State governments have moved to offer cash
> compensation claiming that there is no land on which to resettle the displaced,
> legally violating the non-negotiable land for land rehabilitation clause.
>
> Last year, during the monsoons, I visited the Narmada Valley. As electricity
> pulsates to urban centres, the villages are hollowed out, without water,
> roads, electricity, schools. Shobha Wagh, an activist, died on May 22, 2003,
> trapped in the silt. The very river where people bathed, fished, where children
> played, their greatest ally, has turned into their most intimate enemy.
>
> Last month the government approved a further increase in dam height to 110
> meters. The Bank has refused to intervene, yet again endorsing non-compliance.
> While the Bank has clarified that the terms of the loan agreement continue
> to apply to a project until the loan is repaid, it has failed to ensure that,
> in Sardar Sarovar, funds are used in accordance with the purpose and
> conditions of the loan. In Sardar Sarovar, the Bank is responsible for ensuring the
> conformity of the project with its operational policies until the loans and
> credits are reimbursed. Monitoring of compliance, contrary to the Bank's
> insistence, is not internal to the Government of India. In Sardar Sarovar, the Bank
> must ensure the Indian Government's compliance with adequate resettlement as
> part of the repayment terms.
>
> Further, in December 2003, the Bank announced its intent to double
> infrastructure lending to India, to build dams, roadways, mines, power plants,
> perhaps, at the Indian Governments behest, even engage in the inter-linking rivers
> project, in keeping with the Infrastructure Action Plan approved by its board
> of directors in July 2003. The IAP proposes a return to high-risk projects,
> emphasising a government and corporate focused approach to development that
> systematically marginalizes civil society in decision-making. With regard to
> large dams, the Bank claims that the functioning of dam projects has amplified
> in current times, and that low cost, local alternatives have been exhausted,
> arguing for, hastening, and legitimating its return to high-risk projects.
>
> The World Bank has financed 550 dams at 86 billion dollars, displacing over
> 10 million people, consistently failing to meet its mandate to facilitate
> development for the marginalized that is culturally and ecologically
> sustainable. Moreover, the Bank has violated its own policies and supported national
> governments to act illegally. The Bank should adjourn further investment until
> it acts ethically, ensures compliance and undertakes remedial measures.
>
> An indigenous, tribal, elder in eastern India, no stranger to forcible
> displacement, said this to me: "We are outsiders to society, threatened by
> modernisation, by the government, by corporations. It is as if we have no history
> and no place in the nation. If we change, it is to become unrecognisable to
> ourselves."
>
> In closing, we are here today, in solidarity with the Narmada Bachao Andolan
> (Save the Narmada Movement) -- that, since 1985, has offered prolific
> non-violent dissent to the unjust development brokered by dam advocates.