Text :
13.08.99: Narmada - India : 62
Arrested Daring Submergence at Dam Protest
By Frederick Noronha
BOMBAY, India, August 11, 1999 (ENS) - Villagers and activists
are braving
submergence in a do or die protest against the mammoth
Indian Narmada dam
project, as protests touched a flashpoint this week.
Sixty-two people determined to face submergence in the
rising waters
behind the Sardar Sarovar Dam were arrested by the Maharashtra
police
Wednesday evening in Domkhedi village on the banks for
the Narmada River.
They had been standing in the three-foot deep water since
early Wednesday
morning.
The police had to resort to dragging and beating to arrest
the protesters.
As the police carried them away, a steady stream of villagers
took their
places in the waist deep water, according to eyewitness
Sanjay Sangvai.
The villagers and activists have vowed to remain on their
lands and die in
the waters now rising in the Narmada Valley rather than
be forced onto
resettlement sites. They insist that life in resettlement
sites is not
worth living.
Among those arrested are Medha Patkar, who is a commissioner
of the World
Commission on Dams, and other well known activists Ranyabhai
Padvi and
Devrambhai Kanera.
The Chief Secretary of the state of Maharashtra is on
his way to Domkhedi.
The backwaters of the Sardar Sarovar Project started rising
from the
morning of August 10.
The government of India has yet to give authorization
to increase the $8.1
billion Sardar Sarovar Dam from its current height of
88 meters to a final
height of 163 meters. If the dam and its associated irrigation
system are
completed, it will force the eviction of more than half
a million people
from their lands. A Supreme Court ruling earlier this
year lifted a
four-year moratorium on the dam's construction and the
dam wall has gone
up from 80.3 meters to 88 meters.
Anti-dam campaigners have been protesting since June 20
in Domkhedi and
Jalsindhi villages against what they call "the unjust
submergence imposed
on them by the illegal construction on Sardar Sarovar
Dam before the
monsoon." This is the monsoon season in India, when heavy
rains lash the
region. Reservoirs behind new dams are normally filled
at this time of the
year.
Campaigners call their drive "Satyagraha." Satyagraha
means a fight for
truth. It evokes a similar term used by India's nationalist
champion
Mahatma Gandhi when he launched a drive against British
colonialism in the
1940s.
The foremost campaign group, Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save
The Narmada
Campaign), said, "In Jalsindhi, another Satyagraha place,
the water was
hardly two feet below the Satyagraha house and the three
main activists,
Sitarambhai, Luhariyabhai and Rehmat and others are prepared
to face the
submergence waters. Government officials merely came
to 'inform' the
people and went off."
Earlier this week, police toured some of the villages
with a warning
asking campaigners to go to safe places. The people and
activists made it
clear that they would not move out of the satyagraha
house in face of
potential drowning.
Campaigns over the Narmada got a sudden boost within India
and abroad when
an internationally acclaimed Indian prize winning novelist,
Arundhati Roy,
took the side of the campaigners and articulately pressed
their case. Many
mainstream papers in India have been widely covering
the issue in recent
days.
The United States based International Rivers Network (IRN)
is denouncing
the Indian government for its role in the events now
unfolding in the
Narmada Valley. The group is calling on the Indian government
to halt any
further construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. IRN has
opposed the
project and worked closely with the Narmada Bachao Andolan
for the past 10
years.
Juliette Majot, executive director of International Rivers
Network spent
July 4 to 16 in India, in villages now flooded by the
monsoon rains behind
the Sardar Sarovar Dam. "This is not a natural disaster
caused by the
monsoon," said Majot. "It is a manmade disaster caused
by a dam for which
the government of India is responsible."
While thousands of people now stand to be displaced or
drowned due to
flooding caused by the dam, people already resettled
face severe problems.
Resettlement in fragmented units has torn apart families,
communities and
cultures. In rehabilitation sites, people face shortages
of land and
water, and many suffer from lack of fuelwood, fodder
and poor sanitation.
In resettlement sites visited by Majot, villagers reiterated
that
conditions are unacceptable: land offered is inadequate
for cultivation;
freshwater supplies are insufficient or unavailable;
housing is built of
inappropriate materials for the climate. With no access
to forest products
such as fruits, firewood, and medicinal plants, villagers,
particularly
children, were experiencing health problems and hunger.
"What choice do we have but to submerge ourselves? I've
tried to find the
person to answer this question, but there is no one,"
Batu Narmadya told
Majot in the village of Domkhedi.
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13.08.99: Canadian Natives win Churchill
Power Project EIS
By Bill Eggertson
QUEBEC CITY, Quebec, Canada, August 13, 1999 (ENS) -
Construction of one of
the largest hydroelectric projects in the world has been
stalled due to
environmental protests by native peoples in Canada.
Copyright ENS
A map of the proposed project is online at:
http://www.churchill.ca/english/Maps/
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug99/1999L-08-13-01.html
07.08.99 : Narmada: WATERS RISE AGAIN
Medha and Samarpit Dal Ready To face Submergence
Pressrelease
The backwater of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) in
the Narmada valley
once again rose alarmingly and came upto six and half
feet below the
Satyagraha house in Domkhedi and Jalsindhi on Friday
( August 6).The
Satyagrahis including Medha Patkar, Ranya Padvi, Bawabhai
Muhariya,
Sitaram Patidar and others have been staying put to face
the unjust
submergence. The water level may further rise with the
release of water
from upstream dams of Bargi, Tawa and Barna.
Due to the heavy downpour in the upstream regions of Jabalpur
and Mandla
regions of Narmada valley in Madhya Pradesh, the already
high level of
submergence water has further risen. The level near Hafeshwar,
the
nearest access point near the Satyagraha villages, was
around 98 meters.
The level at the SSP damsite in the evening of August
6 was 92.95 m. In
the upstream, at Rajghat,near Badwani in Nimad, the water
level in the
morning was at 119 m. The backwater level rose sharply,
some three weeks
before going up to 97 m. near Hafeshwar, which was fluctuating
during
the successive weeks. However, Friday's rise was yet
another pointer for
increasing danger. The discharge from the upstream dams
has been quite
substantial. Bargi (30,000 cusecs), Tawa (28,000 cusecs)
and Barna
(30,000 cusecs) would further exacerbate the situation.
The village representatives from the villages in Akrani,
Akkalkua
tehsils in Maharashtra, from Alirajpur tehsil and plains
of Nimad in
M.P. have been participating in the satyagraha at Domkhedi
(Mah) and
Jalsindhi (M.P.) in a large numbers alongwith individuals
and
organisations in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Bengal,
Gujarat and
Maharashtra. From Karnataka representatives fro Dalit
and Women
Chalavali are staying for a long period at the
satyagraha site.
Activists of Swashraya-Vypin, Eco Activists Collective
and various
environmental groups from Kerala, Tamilnadu have been
participating in
the satyagraha.
A 12 member delegation from the villages affected by the
Koliari dam in
Gujarat participated in the mass action. The organisations
at the
Satyagraha place expressed solidarity with the Koliari
struggle and
demanded that the people should not be displaced and
the dam work must
not go ahead without resettling the people.
The increase of the height of the SSP from 80.3 meters
to 85 m plus
humps of 3 meters, would be submerging the houses
and farms of over
2500 families from 50-60 villages in Maharashtra, Madhya
Pradesh. The
government had yet to resettle the affected families
below the 80 meters
itself. Though the NBA has been raising all the basic
issues regarding
the dam and very raison d'etre of the displacement, even
in the very
limited case of the resettlement of the oustees upto
80 meters or 88
meters of dam height, it is proved that the state governments
failed to
resettle the people below that height. The state governments,
instead
have filed false affidavits in the Court
about the resettlement.
Sanjay Sangvai
NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
B-13, Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Baroda-390007
more information : website : save
the Narmada mouvement
03.08.99 : Japan: Nagaki Dam in Akita Prefecture
Frozen
At a press conference on August 2, Sukeshiro Terata,
governor of Akita
Prefecture reavealed that the prefectural governement
intends to freeze the
Nagaki Dam project planned for the upper reaches of the
Nagaki River at the
city of Odate, stating that "the costs of the construction
outweigh the
benefits." On August 5, at a meeting of the prefecture's
Public Works
Project Reassessment Committee, he will consult the members
and after
hearing their findings, he intends take actions to have
the project frozen.
Jiji News Service, Japan
(Translation; Heather Souter,Rivers!Japan)
02.08.99 : La romancière Arundhati
Roy à la tête du combat des écologistes indiens
NEW DELHI de notre correspondante en Asie du Sud
Argumenter à propos des grands barrages est
comme argumenter à propos de
la religion. Il y a un tel mythe en Inde à ce
sujet que personne ne veut
vous écouter. » Après un brillant
plaidoyer moral contre l'arme nucléaire
testée par son pays en 1998, la romancière
Arundhati Roy, Booker Prize 1998
pour son livre Le Dieu des petits riens (Gallimard),
est la figure de proue
de la nouvelle manifestation organisée par l'association
Sauvez le mouvement
du Narmada.
Pendant quatre jours, trois cents personnalités
venues d'Inde ou de
l'étranger vont parcourir la vallée du
Narmada pour apporter leur soutien
aux centaines de milliers de personnes concernées
par les gigantesques
travaux de développement - trente grands barrages,
cent trente-cinq moyens
et trois mille petits - entrepris sur ce fleuve de 1
312 kilomètres qui
court du Madhya Pradesh au Gujarat.
Arundhati Roy explique, dans un nouveau petit livre très
bien documenté, que
« la bataille du Narmada est symbolique des mécanismes
du pouvoir et des
inégalités ».
Sans crainte de soulever un sujet éminemment sensible
en Inde, elle affirme
: « Au coeur de la bataille du Narmada, il y a
le système des castes et
personne ne veut le savoir. » Selon des chiffres
de la Commission du plan,
quarante millions de personnes ont été
déplacées en Inde, depuis
l'indépendance, par la construction de barrages.
Sur ce chiffre, 60 % sont
des tribaux ou des intouchables, qui ne constituent respectivement
que 8 %
et 15 % du milliard d'Indiens.
« Depuis cinquante ans, l'Inde n'a pas de politique
de réhabilitation,
souligne Arundhati Roy. Que les défenseurs des
barrages admettent au moins
que depuis lors des millions de gens ont été
déracinés sans autre
alternative. Mais il faut déjà tant d'énergie
dans ce pays pour ignorer les
problèmes que les gens ne veulent pas qu'on leur
mette le nez dessus. » «
Un écrivain ne peut pas fermer les yeux »,
ajoute-t-elle.
Depuis plus de trente ans, le projet d'aménagement
de la vallée du Narmada
fait périodiquement l'objet de décisions
judiciaires, ses partisans et ses
adversaires tentant de faire valoir leurs arguments devant
la justice. Les
premiers barrages déjà construits tendent
à donner raison aux opposants, qui
ont beau jeu de souligner que les coûts humains
et financiers ont largement
dépassé toutes les estimations. «
Ce projet n'est pas dans l'intérêt
national et nous demandons donc que des personnalités
indépendantes le
réétudient complètement »,
explique Himanshu Thakker, membre de
l'Association de défense du Narmada. Déjà
le Japon puis la Banque mondiale,
en 1993, ont retiré les prêts accordés,
estimant notamment que les
conséquences sur l'environnement n'avaient pas
été suffisamment étudiées.
Les opposants au projet estiment que sa poursuite est
voulue par des lobbys
financiers, tout autant que par les gouvernements successifs
du Gujarat qui,
depuis trente ans, en ont fait un argument électoral.
« Aussi longtemps que
la lutte continue, nous avons l'espoir d'être entendus
», affirme M.
Thakker. La présence d'Arundhati Roy dans cette
bataille a relancé le débat.
L'écrivain n'a nulle intention d'abandonner une
cause qu'elle juge
fondamentale pour le développement d'une démocratie
réelle.
Françoise Chipaux
more information : website : save
the Narmada mouvement
30.07.99 : Prize winning indian author
censored over Narmada dam
(ENS NEWS)
BOMBAY, India, July 30, 1999 (ENS) -
An international body working to protect journalists has voiced its
"deep concern" over what it termed "the latest efforts to suppress discussion
of the environmental and social costs
of Sardar Sarovar dam construction. This dam is part of a controversial
multi-dam irrigation and hydroelectric project along the Narmada River
in
the state of Gujarat.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul99/1999L-07-30-04.html
19.07.99 :INDIA: NARMADA WATER RISING : Medha
and Satyagrahis determined to face submergence
(Narmada Bachao Andolan - Press Note)
The ' Samarpit Dal' (Dedicated Squad) of the Narmada Bachao
Andolan
is determined to face the swirling backwaters of Sardar
Sarovar Project
(SSP) as the level of the Narmada rises sharply due to
heavy rains in the
upper catchment. The main activists of Andolan including
Bawa Muhariya,
Sitarambhai Patidar and Medha Patkar and other villagers
and activists on
Satayagrah (Struggle for Truth) are determined not to
move out even if they
re drowned.
On Sunday and Monday there has been heavy downpour in
the Narmada valley.
The water level has been fast increasing in the Sardar
Sarovar affected areas,
roads are being submerged and it is becoming increasingly
difficult to
communicate
with the villages. If the rains continue for the next
two days the water
may reach the
Satyagraha house in Domkhedi village (on the south bank
of the river in
Maharashtra).
The Satayagrah house in Jalsindhi on the opposite bank
is at a slightly
higher elevation.
There are no reports of opening up of the gates of Tawa
and Bargi dams
upstream.
If they are opened, the water level would rise rapidly,
submerging the
Satyagraha
places and the other villages.
The construction work on the Sardar Sarovar has reached
upto 88 meters
with the permission of the Supreme Court, when the resettlement
of the
first few villages near the damsite also was not complete.
The increased
height (85 m. plus 3 m. of 'humps') would submerge about
60 villages
with 2000 tribal families. This year's submergence would
hit the entire
tribal region in the Sardar Sarovar affected area. The
people have
decided to challenge the unjust submergence and forcible
displacement
that was imposed on them by the government machinations,
with the help
of the false affidavits regarding rehabilitation, thus
misguiding the
apex court in India.
Meanwhile, the preparations are on for the "Rally for
the Valley" of
hundreds of people from Delhi and elsewhere from India,
with the
initiative of the renowned literateur Ms. Arundhati Roy.
Number of
artists, intellectuals and other prominent persons from
various parts of
India will be participating in it. The Rally will start
from
Indore (July 30), and travel through the valley before
it reaches to
Jalsindhi satyagraha place on August 2.
Sanjay Sangvai
M.K. Sukumar
more information : website : save
the Narmada mouvement
05.07.99 : Three Gorges: NGO letter
to Credit Suisse (CS)
The Three Gorges dam in China has become the symbol of
a socially,
environmentally and economicly destructive hydropower
project. In recent
months, criticisms of the project have increased internationally
and even
within China. "There are more people, more corruption,
less land and fewer
jobs than anyone - even pessimists - ever imagined",
the "South China
Morning Post" commented in February 1999.
Given China's economic problems, the government seems
hesitant to commit
more budgetary resources to the Three Gorges dam. The
future of the project
to a large degree depends on whether or not foreign private
funding can be
mobilized. It is critical for NGOs to stop any loans,
bonds, or equity
issues for the project.
Since 1997, international banks have issued several large
bonds for the
China Development Bank (CDB), which has been set up as
a smokescreen to
fund controversial projects such as Three Gorges. Credit
Suisse First
Boston has become involved in such bonds in 1997, and
again in May 1999.
The Berne Declaration is calling on the CS Group to stop
any further direct
or indirect funding of the Three Gorges project. It will
call on ethical
investors to reconsider their relations with the CS Group
as well.
letter to the CS CEO signed by more then 34 NGO's
:
Mr. Lukas B. Mühlemann
CEO, Credit Suisse Group
8070 Zürich
5 July 1999
The Credit Suisse Group and China's Three Gorges Project
Dear Mr. Mühlemann
In January 1997, Credit Suisse First Boston underwrote
$ 66 million in
securities of the State Development Bank of China SDB
(now, China
Development Bank CDB). The most important borrower of
SDB/CDB continues to
be the China Three Gorges Development Corporation. In
a letter to you dated
20 October, 1997, the Berne Declaration and Greenpeace
Switzerland raised
serious concerns regarding the involvement of the Credit
Suisse Group in
financing this extremely controversial dam project. We
are disappointed to
see that Credit Suisse First Boston is again acting as
a co-manager of a
new bond for the China Development Bank worth $ 500 million.
CSFB was also
the co-lead manager of a $ 1 billion bond of the People's
Republic of China
in December 1998, underwriting no less than $ 500 million.
The social, environmental, technical and economic problems
of the Three
Gorges dam have been analyzed in great detail by many
experts. May we only
point out that reputed newspapers and scientific journals
both in China and
abroad have increased their criticism of the project
in recent months. The
Chinese magazine, "Strategy and Management", and the
"People's Daily", the
newspaper of China's Communist Party, have raised serious
concerns
regarding the project in January and May 1999. "There
are more people, more
corruption, less land and fewer jobs than anyone - even
pessimists - ever
imagined", the "South China Morning Post" observed in
February 1999.
"Lancet", the renowned journal of the British Medical
Association, warned
that Three Gorges may become the "Chernobyl of hydropower".
And in March
1999, the "New York Times" commented: "The thaw in repression
of criticism
suggests that altering and even halting the project may
yet be possible.
That is why it is crucial for American financial institutions
to refrain
from underwriting bonds from Chinese entities, like the
State Development
Bank, that finance construction of the dam."
With an immediate funding shortfall of $ 3 billion, the
Three Gorges dam is
the most likely beneficiary of the recent CDB bond offering.
The China
Three Gorges Development Corporation has refered to the
CDB as a principal
source for its funding for a long time. The prospectus
supplement provides
no assurances that the proceeds of the current bond offering
will not be
used to fund the Three Gorges dam. Even if such assurances
were made, there
>are no mechanisms within CDB which would exclude the
financing of the dam,
as the fungibility of money in China is widely accepted
by private
investors and other observers. Parts of the proceeds
of the PRC bond of
December 1998 will also be used for infrastructure projects.
The Three
Gorges dam is specifically mentioned in the prospectus.
As long as China
does not raise capital for controversial ventures like
the Three Gorges
Project directly, all bonds of the CDB, and of China's
government more
generally, risk to be regarded as smokescreens for the
financing of
projects which are socially, environmentally, technically
and economicly
unacceptable.
One large financial institution, BankAmerica Securities,
has already
adopted a specific policy to avoid providing support
to the Three Gorges
Project. A similar policy is now officially before the
leadership of Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter. We are disappointed to see that
the Credit Suisse
Group, which plays an active role in supporting UNEP's
statement on the
environment, does not adher to the same policy of non-involvement.
True,
CSFB has only underwritten a small portion of $ 1.25
million of the latest
CDB bond. Yet unlike it might have been the case in 1997,
CSFB has become a
co-manager of the new bond in full consciousness of the
problems of the
Three Gorges dam, and of the importance which foreign
investors play in
allowing this misguided project to go ahead. In 1997,
CSFB created a
working group to review the Three Gorges Project. Given
the modest
financial involvement, CSFB's role as a co-manager of
the new bond seems to
send a symbolic message to the public that the bank is
prepared to support
CDB regardless of the social, environmental, technical
and economic merit
of its projects.
If the Credit Suisse Group continues to be involved in
the Three Gorges
Project, it may get associated with military force and
a manmade flood
which will be used to resettle up to 2 million people.
We believe that such
an involvement cannot be reconciled with the CSG's reputation
as an
environmentally conscious and responsible financial institution.
We call on
you to adopt a Group-wide policy of avoiding support
for the Three Gorges
dam, as BankAmerica has done before. We are at the same
time encouraging
ethical investors such as Swissca's Green Invest, Fondation
Ethos and other
CSG shareholders to reconsider their investment policy
based on whether or
not the Credit Suisse Group chooses to maintain its support
for the Three
Gorges Project.
We are available to meet with you and/or representatives
of your management
to discuss these matters in greater detail.
Thank you for your attention. We look forward to your
reply.
Sincerely yours,
Peter Bosshard Sibylle Grosjean
Berne Declaration Greenpeace Schweiz
cc: Mr. Flavio Cotti, Chairman of the International Advisory
Board of the CSG
Mr. Hans-Ulrich Doerig, CEO, CSFB
CSG Investor Relations
Mr. Otti Bisang, Head, CS Environmental Management
Services
Mr. Dominique Biedermann, Fondation Ethos
Ms. Sabine Döbeli, Swissca Green Invest
This letter is being endorsed by the following 33 NGOs
from 15 countries:
Liam Phelan, Aid/Watch, Australia
Pamela Foster, Halifax Initiative, Canada
Ben Lefety, Les Amis de la Terre, France
Roberto Epple, European Rivers Network, France
Philippe Lhort, SOS Loire Vivante, France
Dario Jana, Red Internacional de Apoyo al Pueblo Pehuenche,
Germany
Caroline Zuñiga, Urgewald, Germany
Heike Drillisch, WEED, Germany
Shripad Dharmadhikary, Narmada Bachao Andolan, India
Himanshu Thakkar, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers
and People, India
Theo Ruyter, Both Ends, The Netherlands
Irene Bloemink, Milieudefensie, The Netherlands
Nina Drolsum, FIVAS, Norway
Aly Ercelawn & Muhammad Nauman, Creed Alliance, Pakistan
Ramón Fogel, Centro de Estudios Rurales Interdisciplinarios,
Paraguay
Jacek Bozek, Stowarzyszenie Ekologiczno-Kulturalne "Klub
Gaja", Poland
Juan Carlos Rodríguez Murillo, Ecologistas en
Acción, Spain
Mechthild Nussbaumer, Berne Declaration, Switzerland
Astrid Wallner, Incomindios, Switzerland
Gertrud Ochsner, Independent Network Monitoring the Swiss
Financial System,
Switzerland
Göpf Berweger, Society for Threatened Peoples, Switzerland
Brigitte Anderegg, Solifonds, Switzerland
Peter Niggli, Swiss Coalition of Development Organizations,
Switzerland
Heini Glauser, Swiss Energy Foundation, Switzerland
Gerhard Meili, Swiss Labour Assistance, Switzerland
Monica Borner, WWF Switzerland
Serghiy Fedorynchyk & Mikola Korobko, Zeleny Svit
Information Center, Ukraine
Nicholas Hildyard, The Corner House, United Kingdom
Roger Moody, PartiZans, United Kingdom
Bruce Rich, Environmental Defense Fund, USA
Patrick McCully, International Rivers Network, USA
Julie Tanner, National Wildlife Federation, USA
Doug Norlen & Mary Rees, Pacific Environment and
Resources Center, USA
01.07.99 :
EDWARDS DAM REMOVED ON MAINE'S
KENNEBEC RIVER
© Environment News Service (ENS) 1999. All Rights
Reserved.
Fish restoration efforts on Maine's Kennebec River took
a historic step forward today as the Edwards Dam was breached and the river
ran free for the first time in 162 years. The Kennebec is the largest river
in the United States to benefit from a dam removal and Edwards Dam is among
the largest dams ever removed in the nation. Today's action came as the
result of a precedent setting 1997 decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) that the environmental and economic benefits of a free
flowing Kennebec are greater than the economic benefits of continued operation
of the Edwards Dam hydroelectric project. FERC denied the relicensing request
in 1997 and ordered the dam removed. "With removal of the Edwards Dam,
the Kennebec River has been given a new lease on life," said Steve Brooke,
coordinator of the Kennebec Coalition, which includes American Rivers,
the Atlantic Salmon Federation, the Natural Resources Council of Maine,
and Trout Unlimited and its Kennebec Valley Chapter. The Kennebec Coalition
was formed in 1989 with the goal of removing the Edwards Dam and restoring
the Kennebec River. The Edwards Dam harmed fish by flooding critical habitat
and preventing fish that migrate from the ocean from reaching prime upstream
spawning grounds. Removal of Edwards Dam opens up 17 miles of spawning
and nursery habitat. Populations of 10 species of migratory fish are expected
to benefit including: American shad, Atlantic salmon, striped bass, Atlantic
sturgeon, short-nosed sturgeon, blueback herring, and alewives. Populations
will not rebound overnight, but are expected to gain steadily over the
next 20 years.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS 