8624299 Sardar Sarovar Dam

8/12/2019 8624299 Sardar Sarovar Dam

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The Sardar Sarovar Dam

Presented By: Group-1





Why do countries build Dams?

• It’s a means by which many of the developedcountries of the world build their economic strength

• Improving the circumstances of a region - be it health,crops, infrastructure or industries - leads to greaterproductivity, more markets, sturdier populations,more investment, and so on

• However, there is a cost….



Social and Economic Implications of Dams

Relocation ofcommunities:

- impacts on health, & economic, social,

cultural well-being

Loss of communitycontrol over water:

- transfer of control from local level to

central government or corporate control

Diseases: - encouraged by dam projects (creatinghabitat for parasites), e.g.schistosomiasis, mosquitoes

Increasing cost of dams: - problems encountered in building dams(ex. sedimentation).- cost of mitigating social, environmentalimpacts.- delays- best sites already taken -- only moreremote, more difficult sites left.

http://www.idsnet.org/Resources/Dams/Development/impact-econ.html







Social and Economic Implications of Dams

• Inflexibility of hydrodams as power source (need to predictelectricity demand far in future).

• Increasing economic inequalities: disproportionate share of project benefits usually go to wealthier sectors of society

•

Important contributor to national debt.








Narmada River in India

http://www.sardarsarovardam.org/default.htm

http://www.sardarsarovardam.org/ph_dam/ph_dam.htm



Narmada means ‘ever -delightful’, one of the holiest rivers in thecountry of India

“they say that even the site of the river will cleanse all of your sins”

The Narmada River

www.sardarsarovardam.org/ river_basin.htm



The Narmada river

• It is the largest westward flowing river in India.• Home to over a million people

www.irn.org/revival/ decom/orgs/NBA.html



The Narmada river – The people

• It is home to over a millionpeople, mainly tribal people,Adivasi (original dwellers) whosegrandparents lived on and farmedthe land.

• Local farmers, wage laborers,craftspeople and fishermen livealong the river and rely on it fortheir livelihood.

http://www.narmada.org/images/satyagraha2001/ValleyLife.html



The Narmada River & its people

The river is used for:• Irrigate land for

farmers• Drinking water• Wash clothes• Cook

• Spiritual benefits

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0209/feature1/





Why the Narmada Dam?

Currently in India:• 1/5 of pop. (200 million people) are without safe drinking

water•

2/3 of pop. (600 million people) lack basic sanitation• 2/5 of pop. (350 million people) live below the poverty line• With rain being sporadic because of rainy seasons and

variations between different parts of the country, the idea of

storing river water in reservoirs behind dams seemed to be agreat solution



The Narmada Dam Project• The first of the dams to be built is the Sardar Sarovar. It is

considered to be one of the most important dams in the projectand the biggest water development project in India

• According to the government, the Sardar Sarovar Dam will dothe following:

• Provide safe drinking water to 30 million people• Irrigate 4.8 million hectares of land• Produce 550 megawatts of power

• Provide 1,300 cubic-meters of water per yr.for municipal and industrialpurposes• Provide a drainage system to carry away floodwaters• It will also take the land of 320,000 people



The Narmada Dam Project

https://reader010.{domain}/reader010/html5/0616/5b23f151848c3/5b23f15c77f86.jpg



The Sardar Sarovar Dam

• The cost of the project was estimated at $200million, actual cost is $450 million

• Investors are the World Bank until 1993 (when they

withdrew), Gov. of Gujarat (state where the SardarSarovar dam is located) and S.Kumars (India’s leadingtextile companies)

• It will displace 180,000 more than projected andaffect 700,000 livelihoods



India’s History with Dams

According to the World Commission on dams:Over the last 50 years, India has built more than 1500 large dams. 70% of the

irrigation projects are still incomplete16 million Indian people have been forced from their homes because of these

dams.¾ of these people were not ‘rehabilitated’

Picture of a village, now anisland

http://www.narmada.org/images/satyagraha2003/sat7.jpg



Opponents

• Dalits and Adivasi (indigenous people). In accordance to their caste systemthey are often referred to as ‘untouchables’. Many of these people areuneducated and very few can read and write.

• Narmada Bachao Andolan, the Save the Narmada Movement (NBA). Themovement started in 1986 when the World Bank lent India $450 million forthe Sardar project. It was started by a social worker named Medha Patkar.She is the representative for the NBA movement.

Medha Patkar http://www.narmada.org/domkhedi.submergence.pictures.html



Opponents

• Arundhati Roy; Booker Prize-winning author supporter of the Save theNarmada Movement ; wrote a book about the Dams in India called ‘TheGreater Common Good’.

• Baba Amte; a social worker whose work with leprosy has earned him

much respect in the country among the tribal people and governmentofficials.

“Nobody builds Big Dams to provide drinking water to rural people.Nobody can afford to.”

“There's a lot of money in poverty .”

Arundhati Roy



Proponents

• Indian Government supports the building of dams.• The World Bank supported the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project

and loaned India $450 million. They withdrew from theproject after an independent review confirmed social andenvironmental impacts were increasing.

• The Supreme Court of India has ruled on the Sardar SarovarDam. In 1995 they suspended work on the dam because theheight exceeded the amount originally planned, 75m. In 1999they ordered work to continue up to the height of 85m. Thenin Oct 18, 2000 they ruled in favor of building the SardarSarovar despite global protests



Proponents

• Mr Vyas, Gujarat's Minister for Narmada Irrigation.

“We have shown that if anybody else in the world can do it, we can do itbetter”

"I think this is a civil engineering marvel."“If you have to sacrifice a little bit of your own for the good of society, do it

gladly, willingly, smilingly"

"We have given them the best and put them in the bracket which belongs tothe best people. We can't wish them away."

Mr. Vyas in ‘Drowned Out’ film.



Why did the World Bank withdraw theloan?

• It was a protest by the NBAcalled 'satyagraha' thatcaught the World Banksattention.

• They sent in anindependent review teamheaded by Hugh Brody, a

British anthropologist andDonald Gamble, a Canadianenvironmental engineer.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/dammed/photo.html





Environmental Impacts

• Threat to aquatic habitat – barriers for fish passage, waterquality is affected because of change in land use can alsoaffect aquatic life

• Water logging – excess water in the soil and can render thesoil useless. This could affect 40% of the area to be irrigated.

• Salinisation – when irrigation water has more saline contentand adds more salt to the system. This happens because theland to be irrigated is an arid area and not used to so muchwater. This impacts the flora and fauna and makes the waternot suitable for drinking.



Health Impacts• Outbreak of diseases – the concern of an increase in malaria

because of the increased reservoirs and water logged lands,which are prime locations for mosquitoes to breed.

• Authorities have suggested pesticides but there is concern forhumans ingesting the pesticide.

• Another disease on the rise is TB because of the increasingnumber of people being moved out of their villages becauseof dams.

• The shanty towns they move to have no running water and noplumbing.



Social Impacts

http://www.narmada.org/images/haripics/harikrishna.pictures1.html

There was no social impactsassessment before the damproject started. The WorldBank tried to do an assessmentafter the dam project startedbut found that there was a‘severe shortage in baselinedata’.

One of the main problems that

came up was the lack ofcommunication between thestate and the people who wereto be affected by the project .



Save the Narmada Movement

• Established in 1989• Sept 1989 - 60,000 people rally against destructive development• Jan 1990 – 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



Save the Narmada Movement

• Christmas Day 1990 – Long March – 3,000 people walked, 100km, whichtook a week to the dam site, once they got there Medha Patka and 6others went on a hunger strike demanding the government suspend workon the dam and hold an independent review. It lasted 22 days until theybroke fast – this made Narmada an international issue.

• Jan 1991 – The World Bank commissions independent review

http://www.narmada.org/images/haripics/harikrishna.pictures1.html







Resettlement plan…what resettlementplan?

Not enough resettlement sites havebeen set up for the amount of peoplealready displaced.

The sites that have been set up have noelectricity, no water, no farming, andno fruit or trees.

In order to get water etc., they must buythem but they can’t buy them if theycan’t farm and they can’t farmbecause they don’t have these things

Old house

New househttp://www.sardarsarovardam.org/default.htm



Resettlement

While the pictures of the new settlements looklike an improvement, they are deceiving. Theresettlement agency showed the same townto tribal people who were considering being

relocated. For those that resign to move, willbe taken to a completely different town withno amenities promised, if there are anyhouses available at all

The other option is to take a cash payment forwhat their land is worth, which oftentimes isnot enough to buy other property and goes tofood for survival

Old school

New schoolhttp://www.sardarsarovardam.org/default.htm



So where do the people go?

http://images.google.com/images?q=housing+in+India&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=40&sa=N

https://reader010.{domain}/reader010/html5/0616/5b23f151848c3/5b23f164e1248.jpg

• They move to the outskirtsof the city where they try to

get work as laborers and liveon less than $1 a day

• They go back to their old townby the river and hope that theirhouses have not been destroyed

by police• They protest







http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=www.nishkam.org/images/siklig3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nishkam.org/sikligar_photo_1.htm&h=768&w=1024&sz=90&tbnid=XPSoEL9LyggJ:&tbnh=112&tbnw=149&start=57&prev=/images?q=housing+in+India&start=40&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N



What about the people with nowater?

One of these villages in the desertregion where millions of people areaffected by water shortages is Gujarat.It is one of the villages bring used bythe government to justify theNarmada dam. Twenty years ago theyrelied on their wells, but the wells arenow dry. Why?

Agribusiness and industry are drillingever deeper tube wells to find water,

which is causing the water level todecrease by about 4ft every year.Currently, the town of Gujarat, isdependant on emergency watersupplies from the government

A picture used on the dam builders website




But…..

….if the water is soscarce why is there a

water park in Gujaratwhere people aredying of thirst?

a water theme park's discotheque. Popularplaygrounds for urban, educated Indians, waterparks are booming in India, drought or no. Thepark's water luxury stands in sharp contrast toconditions in Gujarat.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/dammed/photo2.html



The village of RajSamadhiyala is also in thedrought region and yet it isself-sufficient in waterbecause they are usingsimple water saving andcollecting techniques torecharge the groundwaterlevel and their wells.

Utilizing Resources




Current status of the Dam

• The Spillway of Sardar Sarovar Dam israised upto its crest level of 121.92 M

•

Construction of Irrigation Bye PassTunnel [IBPT] is almost completed.

• Preconstruction activities ofGarudeshwar weir has been taken up.

• Protests are a regular occurrence andthey will continue to do so until thedam is stopped.


http://www.sardarsarovardam.org/ph_reh/ph_reh.htm



How can I learn more

www.narmada.org www.sardarsarovardam.org

www.dams.org

http://www.narmada.org/

http://www.sardarsarovardam.org/

http://www.dams.org/

http://www.dams.org/

http://www.sardarsarovardam.org/






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8624299 Sardar Sarovar Dam