From: aparna@mipos2.intel.com (Aparna Krishnan)
Subject: NARMADA - WB defers decision till ...
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 19:30:16 GMT

I just spoke to deborah moore of EDF. The WB has delayed 
deciding till Oct 18th. They want a review with the moore
commision. So it'd be best if we could put more pressure 
on them. She suggested that

	The petitions need to go to
		Mr.Lewis T. Preston,
		President, The World Bank,
		1818 H Street,
		NW Washington, DC - 20433.

	and also to the Indian representative
		Mr. J.S. Baijal,
		Executive Director World Bank,
		1818 H Street,
		NW Washington, DC - 20433

	He is the Executive Director for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.
	Writing to him is important because the issue gets raised that
	the protestors are mainly non-Indians.

It would be great if you sent a copy of the same to

	deborah moore
	EDF
	rockridge market hall
	5655 college ave.
	oakland, CA 94618

the idea is that when they bring up the issue with WB, they can say
" ... u would have got so mant letters to this effect ..."

please get in touch  with (aparna@mipos2.intel.com) in case you
need any details on the project/ further information before taking
a stand.

Here is a repost of the full-page ad that appeared in New York Times on
Monday, September 21, 1992.

----------------
 [ YOUR TAX MONEY --- FUNDING YET ANOTHER WORLD BANK DISASTER ]

             WHY  THOUSANDS   OF   PEOPLE
           WILL   DROWN   BEFORE   ACCEPTING
             THE   SARDAR   SAROVAR  DAM

The world bank is at it again. This time it  is  financing  (with
your  tax  money)  a  monstrous  dam  project  in India that 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.  The  people  are  resisting.
Thousands  have  vowed  they will drown rather than give up their
homes. And the Bank's own Independent Review commission has  said
the project is flawed and that the bank should ``step back'' from
it. We strongly agree.  You can help. Here are some details:

1. The World Bank was created after World War II from  altruistic
motives:  to  help war-torn countries. But later, it took it upon
itself to implement development projects in the third world. Many
have proved to be social and economic disasters.

2. Partly funded by taxpayers, the Bank now uses its  mandate  to
devastate   rainforests,   replace   self-sufficient  agriculture
(substituting corporate agribusiness), and construct some of  the
most  colossal  dam  projects  on Earth. Such World Bank projects
have   contributed   to   global   problems   of   deforestation,
desertification,   salinization,   the   spread   of  water-borne
diseases, and the forcible displacement of more  than  a  million
tribal and rural poor people.
   Does anyone benefit? Yes. The corporation and  engineers  that
build  the  project,  and  the  elite  government  officials  and
politicians that support them.

3. A case in point is the Sardar Sarovar Project on  the  Narmada
River in India. If completed, the dam will be 3,970 feet wide and
455 feet high, creating a reservoir 125  miles  long.  The  water
will  submerge  31,500  acres  of valuable forest land and 27,500
acres of rich agricultural land. Construction has already  begun,
but is being seriously slowed by massive local resistance.

4. About 100,000 people now live  in  the  ``submergence  zone,''
gaining  their  sustenance  from  the forest and from small-scale
agriculture. An overwhelming majority oppose the dam, but all are
slated  for  forced  displacement.  Believers  in the non-violent
strategies  of  Gandhi,  the  people  are  not  cooperating  with
authorities.  Several  thousand have __vowed to drown rather than
leave their homes and traditional lives__. In  most  cases,  this
includes entire villages.

5. The WB has already approved $450  million  toward  the  Sardar
Sarovar  Dam Project, with another $456 million for related canal
works. But the destruction will not end  there.  The  the  Sardar
Sarovar Dam is an essential element in the much larger, even more
devastating Narmada Valley Development Project: 30 major dams and
over  3000  medium  and  minor irrigation schemes that will cause
displacement of more than one million people.

6. The WB's own guidelines require that when  indigenous  peoples
are  affected  there  must  be  full  consultation on any removal
plans, and that ``oustees'' must regain a standard of  living  at
least  equal  to  the  one they left. __The Bank has never in its
history lived up to that standard in a major  project.__  In  the
case  of  Sardar  Sarovar, they have again failed to do so, or to
redress the human rights implications of this project.

7. Seven years of controversy over this project finally compelled
the  WB  to  appoint  a  distinguished commission led by Bradford
Morse, former Head of the UN Development Programme, to ferret out
the  facts.  The  panel  found that the projects were ``__flawed,
that  resettlement  and  rehabilitation  are   impossible   under
prevailing  circumstances,  and  that environmental impacts, were
not properly considered.__''
   According to the report, no comprehensive Environmental Impact
Assessment  was ever completed. And to this day, says the report,
the basic data for an Environmental Impact Assessment still  does
not exist.

8. OTHER FINDINGS OF THE REPORT:
   -> Resettlement planning was  so  negligent  that  __the  Bank
completely  ignored  the plight of 140,000 families that would be
affected by the canals.__ 13,000 of these families will lose  all
or most of their land.

   -> Several of the Indian stats in the region are  refusing  to
give  oustees any land since, being ancient tribal societies, the
oustees   never   had   documents   to   prove   their   original
``ownership.''  (They  lived  on their land long before ownership
documents  existed.)  The  Bank  never  tried  to  determine  the
magnitude of this problem.

   -> Technical analysis suggests the dams will  not  perform  as
advertised,  will  not  deliver  the  supply  of  drinking  water
promised, and that the irrigation benefits are exaggerated. Also,
sedimentation,  waterlogging,  salinity and drainage problems may
make the dams and canals less effective, or inoperable, soon.

   -> The threat of  waterborne  disease  like  malaria  was  not
assessed,  and  no  safeguards  were  taken.  (Malaria cases have
dramatically increased near the dam site.)

   -> From the report: ``__Important assumptions upon  which  the
project  is  based  are  questionable or known to be unfounded...
benefits are overstated while social and environmental costs  are
frequently  understated.  Assertions  have  been  substituted for
analysis.__''

9. The most critical phase has now begun. Construction on  Sardar
Sarovar  is  underway,  and forcible resettlement has begun. Some
protesters, and  families  that  refuse  to  go,  have  met  with
terrifying  brutality  from  Indian  police:  beatings, arbitrary
arrests, unlawful detentions in the thousands.  The Human  Rights
group,  Asia  Watch, said this (in June): ``These abuses are part
of an increasingly repressive campaign by the state governments''
to  try  to  prevent  organizing  of protests in villages, or the
release of any news on the  disastrous  environmental  or  social
effects.  The  Independent Review team concurred: ``Progress will
be impossible except as a result of unacceptable means.''

   India's central and state governments share responsibility for
these  human  rights abuses, but the bank itself is an accomplice
for having ignored the abuses and by refusing to acknowledge  the
awful consequences of these projects.

   THE QUESTION MUST BE RAISED: __can  the  World  Bank  ever  be
reformed__?   
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