His house was demolished and his farm was excavated and concreted over. Nearly 300,000 more people, like Bhaiji, will be forced to give up land for the extensive 75,000-kilometer irrigation canal system, a planned nature sanctuary to compensate for wildlife drowned by the reservoir, and ironically, for resettlement sites for those displaced by the reservoir. There are no plans to compensate any of these people. The reservoir for SSP will flood the homes and lands of more than 200,000 villagers. Those who have moved to resettlement sites face severe problems.
Villagers complain that there is no drinking water or adequate land for cultivation.
Families are housed in tin shacks which are like ovens in summer and freezers in winter, reported Juliette Majot, Executive Director of International Rivers Network, after a recent trip. Due to a shortage of arable land, communities have been split up onto widely scattered sites. The nearly 750 families of Vadgam have been resettled in 33 places, shattering families and communities. Sickness and disease on resettlement sites are prevalent. In April, seven people died following a bout of vomiting and fever during a 10-day period at a resettlement site located near Rameshwarpura.