Title: INDIA: Tribesman travels to 'tell world' of damage of dam project
an inter press service feature
by greg mcivor
oslo, dec 2 (ips) -- tribesman bija juglya vasawa left india for
the first time in his life late last month, when he journeyed to a
snow-covered norwegian capital ''to tell the world about the
damage the world bank is doing to our people''.
bija, a farmer from the village of chilmalkhedi in the state of
madhya pradesh, is one of up to 200,000 indigenous tribes people
and small-scale farmers threatened with eviction from their land
as the indian government forges ahead with the highly
controversial 12 billion dollar dam project.
the land where he and his family grow fruit and cereals and
harvest roots from the forest will be submerged if the dam is
built. bija says he and thousands of others will stay and drown
rather than move hundreds of kilometres to an uncertain future.
financed by world bank loans, the narmada dam is intended to
irrigate the land of 140,000 farmers and provide hydro-electric
power to three western indian states -- gujarat, maharashtra and
madhya. it will flood an estimated 37,000 hectares of land with
the construction of 75,000 kms of canals.
''we will lose out homes, our livelihoods, our traditions,'' bija
told ips. ''the world bank thinks that this is a development for
the tribal people but it is for rich people.''
the world bank has already loaned 450 million dollars for the
project, with 350 million dollars more in the pipeline. initially,
the additional 350 million dollar loan had been put on hold after
a world bank appointed review team found evidence of ''gross
delinquency in the handling of environmental matters''.
according to the 363-page review -- presented to the bank in mid-
september -- the resistance by the people affected by the
construction, had also resulted in gross human rights violations.
addressing a conference of world bank representatives and
environment groups in oslo last week, bija said: ''neither
officials from the indian government nor the world bank have come
to see how the tribes live. people who do come here go away
believing the scheme will be a disaster.''
at the same conference, shripad dharm, an engineer and narmada
campaign activist, called on the world bank to pull out of the
project in the absence of safeguards for the displaced people. he
told delegates the indian government was unable to meet its pledge
to give two hectares of land to everyone evicted.(more/ips)
india: tribesman travels to 'tell world' of damage of dam project(2-e)
india: tribesman (2)
''all the government has done is build corrugated iron shelters
for those who are moved,'' charged dharm. ''some families have
even returned to their homes near narmada because the conditions
were so bad.''
the benefits of the dam, which is about 15 percent complete, are
a ''mirage'', and highly exaggerated, he said. ''we are talking
about a kind of environmental genocide. if the world bank lived up
to its own policies it would pull out.''
world bank deputy environment director andrew steer, admitted the
bank had made ''mistakes'', and said future financial support for
the dam would be withheld unless the indian government met world
bank conditions concerning the people made homeless.
''we are trying to minimise the damage caused by world bank
projects. we have to make sure that projects like narmada are not
repeated,'' said steer. however, he refused to accept that the
world bank should simply pull out, saying that every political
party in the indian parliament supported the scheme.
''that is an issue of democracy and it is very, very tough,'' he
said. ''the indian government would go ahead without us if we
pulled out. we think it is better to stay in and retain some
influence over the project.''
many experts at the conference were sceptical of the bank's self-
proclaimed ''green'' credentials. ''there is a schism in the world
bank between enlightened people and the economists,'' said barry
coates of the world wide fund for nature.
''they have recognised environmental and development problems for
many years but the projects they support do not reflect it.
schemes like narmada are extremely damaging because they erode
public confidence that foreign aid does any good.''
joe mathe, director of norwegian save the children in zimbabwe,
accused the world bank of bringing borrowing countries to their
knees by making money conditional on acceptance of a draconian
economic prescription. he charged that world bank loans to
zimbabwe had depended on the government devaluing the zimbabwean
dollar, abolishing price subsidies and liberalising trade.
''our environment has been destroyed,'' he said ''our forests are
deserts and our best companies have left the country. ten years
ago zimbabwe was on the way to an economic boom. now in 1992 the
optimism has gone.''
steer rejects the accusations, saying the problems of zimbabwe
and other recipient countries would be far worse without the
loans. ''the whole point of our structural adjustment programmes
is to stop countries falling as far as they otherwise would.
''zimbabwe is a tragic case,'' he said. ''it has been hit by the
double whammy of a collapsing economy at the same time as a
terrible drought but it is not the world bank's fault.''
(end/ips/en-ip/gm/cpg)