From: adve@cs.wisc.edu (Vikram S. Adve)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,alt.activism,sci.environment,soc.rights.human
Subject: (Narmada) Thanks to all who responded
Date: 15 Oct 92 17:36:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Oct15.173608.22144
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Madison

We would like to thank all those who responded to our posting on
World Bank's funding for the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project. We collected
more than 325 e-mail signatures before the deadline. Yesterday afternoon
we faxed a cover letter, along with the resolution that was included
in our earlier posting to these newsgroups as well as the signatures,
to the following World Bank officials:

President		Mr.Lewis T. Preston

Executive Directors 	J.S. Baijal (South Asia)
			E. Patrick Coady (US)  
			Yasuyuki Kawahara (Japan) 
			Fritz Fischer (Germany)   
			David Peretz (UK)

We also sent posted copies to:
			Deborah Moore, Environmental Defense Fund
			Senator Albert Gore
			Senator Patrick Leahy.

We will keep you up-to-date on future developments as we get more
information.

We used the following cover letter (and the resolution is given
below that):
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   Subject : Withhold World Bank Funding for the Sardar Sarovar Project.

We are a group of people who are concerned about the various
complications with the Sardar Sarovar Project. We are qualified
professionals from many different walks of life, and we have done an
extensive study of the pros and the cons of the project. Based on the
information available to us, we sincerely believe that continued
funding by the bank at this time is counter-productive. We call on you
to withhold funding for the project until all concerns identified by
the Morse Commission are addressed to the satisfaction of all affected
parties.

We have been co-ordinating our efforts in raising the level of public 
awareness, including a signature-campaign on the Usenet computer
news network. As part of this campaign, we presented information on the
project available to us and invited readers to send electronic mail
to show their opposition to continued World Bank funding.
More than 300 people responded to our campaign, and they join us in
asking you to withhold funding for the project. We enclose the relevant
portions of their electronic mail responses (including names and
addresses), along with the text of the resolution adopted by them.

We believe that the recent Action Plan, recommended by the World
Bank and accepted by the Indian Government, is nothing but a
continuation of the Bank's incremental approach to the problems
that bog the Sardar Sarovar Project.  The Morse Commission
explicitly warns that such incremental approaches are doomed to
failure and are even counter-productive.  The fact remains that
the World Bank as well as the Indian Government have neglected to
consider environmental and rehabilitation costs when planning the
construction of Sardar Sarovar Project. 

The Bank's policies, especially regarding this project, have been
severely  criticized by individuals, organizations and other nations.
In recent times, the Chairmen of both the US Senate and House Foreign
Operations Subcommittees declared (in a letter to the World Bank
President) the Sardar Sarovar Project to be a "fiasco"; the Swedish
Ministry of Finance has called for a discussion on the legal
possibilities for the Bank to "take a step back" from the project; and
the European Parliament in a ten-point resolution suggests that the
Bank withdraw from the project, pay compensation to those who have
already suffered, and write off the US $250 millions or so, already
spent on the project. Most importantly, there is a widespread
grass-roots oppostion to the construction of the dam in India. Hence we
are not alone in asking the World Bank to withhold funding for
the project.

Sincerely,

		Vikram Adve		Suchitra Balachandran
		Kalyan Banerjee		Sayan Bhattachacharya
		Srinivas Budaraju	George Chacko
		Ravi Gujar		S.V. Jagannnath
		Aparna Krishnan		Rajesh Krishnan
		Bindu Mohanty		Rajesh Raman
		Charles Regis		Debendra Das Sharma
		Sujatha Venkat

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Enclosure 1: Text of the resolution

We are opposed to the World Bank funding the Sardar Sarovar Project because:

--  The project will submerge tens of thousands of acres of forests
    and farms, destroy fisheries, increase disease, and force more 
    than 100,000 tribal and rural people off their land;
    
--  Economic assessment is flawed. Benefits are overstated while the
    social and environmental costs are frequently understated. For
    example, while 85,000 hectares of forest area is drowned, the
    afforestation grant only covers 3,000 hectares;
    
--  No comprehensive environmental impact assessment was ever completed;
    
--  Resettlement and rehabilitation plan is incomplete and inadequate.
    A large tribal population will be displaced without adequate
    compensation;
    
--  Technical analysis suggests the dams will not perform as advertized,
    will not deliver the supply of drinking water as promised, and the 
    irrigation benefits are exaggerated;
    
--  Sedimentation, salinity, waterlogging and drainage problems may make
    the project less effective. Studies show that siltation will make
    the project useless in 15 years. 57% of the Narmada basin is clay soil
    with waterlogging problems. The existing dams have only worsened this;
    
--  Threat of waterborne diseases not assessed and no safeguards taken;
    
--  An independent commission appointed by the World Bank (The Morse
    Commission) has found that the project is "flawed, the resettlement
    and rehabilitation are impossible under the prevailing circumstances
    and the environmental impacts are not properly considered;"
    
--  No provisions are made for wildlife relocation;
    
--  Alternatives such as groundwater development, mini/micro-hydel dams,
    minor irrigation schemes, energy conservation, etc are not fully
    explored; and
    
--  The Planning Commission of India suggested after evaluating the
    performance of large dams that the focus should be on better
    management of existing projects. As of 1983, of the 215 major and 
    916 medium irrigation projects taken up since 1951, 176 major and 
    446 medium projects were still to be completed.

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Enclosure 2: 325 e-mail signatures, names and addresses.