Villagers Capture Dam in India
by Shripad Dharmadhikary and Patrick McCully

India - Thousands of Indian villagers gathered on the banks of the Narmada River February 3 to celebrate victory in their year-long campaign to halt the Maheshwar hydropower dam. On January 30, the Madhya Pradesh state government suspended construction pending a review of the dam's costs, benefits, and environmental and social impacts.

Excavations for the dam's foundations began last year but work came to a dramatic halt on January 11 when 25,000 villagers - the majority of them women waving the blue banners of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA - Save the Narmada Movement) - captured and occupied the construction site.

Police had attempted to thwart protests by sealing all roads leading to Maheshwar, but the villagers reached the construction site by darting from their villages in the middle of the night and entering the site along little-known pathways.

As word of the occupation spread, supporters poured in from other dam affected areas across India - from Sardar Sarovar, Narmada Sagar, Man, Jobat, Bargi, Lower Goi and Upper Veda.

A core force of 3,000-4,000 people occupied the dam site. Tents and a makeshift stage were built and a large kitchen began serving meals for the 4,000 occupiers. Local merchants sold tea, snacks and other wares in stalls decorated with fluttering NBA flags.

The dam would have submerged 2,500 acres of productive farmland and displaced 100,000 people in 61 villages. Despite these impacts, the government refused to release reports detailing the area to be flooded and failed to draft a resettlement plan for displaced villagers and farmers. The local electrical utility attempted to make cash payments to displaced people in lieu of new land - a violation of Indian law.

After receiving written assurance that work on the dam had been suspended, the protesters called off their 20-day occupation and halted a hunger strike that had already sent one NBA leader to a hospital.

Maheshwar was to have been the first privately-financed large hydroproject in India. The concession to build and operate the 400-MW Maheshwar Dam was given to S. Kumars (an Indian textile and tires company with no prior experience in dam projects). Swiss-Swedish engineering giant ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB) and the German firm Siemens were to supply generating equipment.

"In 1993 we threw the World Bank out of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, now we have thrown the private companies out of Maheshwar," declared NBA leader Medha Patkar. "This struggle has been led by women and financed by the farmers of the valley. This will send a strong message to Indian and foreign corporations that privatization will not be accepted on their terms. The people will decide how development proceeds in the Narmada Valley."

Ms. Patkar and NBA activist Alok Agarwaal will join Madhya Pradesh government officials and alternative energy generation and water management experts on a new Task Force to review the Maheshwar project. The Task Force will also prepare a framework to redesign the entire Narmada Valley Development Project - a gargantuan plan to build 30 major, 135 medium and 3000 small dams on the Narmada River, India's longest westward-flowing river.

Maheshwar was the second hydroproject embarrassment for ABB. Last September, ABB lost its largest contract - a $5.4 billion agreement to build Malaysia's Bakun Dam - due to the Asian economic crisis.

International Rivers Network [1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA, (510) 848-1155; Fax: (510) 848-1008, irn@irn.org, www.irn.org] Campaign Director Patrick McCully jubilantly observed that "IRN and other dam critics warned them [ABB] the Bakun project would collapse and we warned them about Maheshwar. Maybe now they will start to listen to dam opponents."

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...And 1,000 Police Storm the Site

Madhya Pradesh - On March 28, about a thousand police took over the Maheshwar Dam site in what is viewed as an attempt to restart work under massive police protection. The police blocked all routes to the site, effectively sealing it off.

The review process on the controversial project had been moving along fairly well. The Government had made available good number of documents in an attempt to make its case that the project was affordable and necessary. The next task force meeting was set for April 15.

NBA sensed that something was wrong. In February, S. Kumars, the dam construction company, and the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board began running full-page ads in local newspapers promoting the "massive benefits" of the project. The NBA raised objections to the ads and the task force promised to look into the matter.

Suddenly the Chair of the Task Force called for an urgent meeting on March 4 to discuss possibility of allowing some construction at the dam for "safety purposes." The meeting was attended by representatives of the S. Kumars who requested permission to construct a wall to ensure that the huge pits dug in the mountain will not be filled with silt during the monsoon rains.

The international attention caused by the people's seizure of the Maheshwar site seems to have scared off investors. S. Kumars wants to show that the "review" was nothing but a temporary political concession. They could only do this if the work restarts. In the March 4 meeting, they spelled out the "safety related work" - the construction of a permanent 240-meter safety wall, which would be part of the final project and would involve 2-3 months of blasting and construction. The NBA refused to entertain what was clearly an attempt to start work under the guise of safety.

Without warning, the Narmada Valley Development Authority announced that "any work for the purposes of safety and resettlement" would be permitted. On March 16, the company started pumping water from the excavation pits. The enraged villagers sent a letter to the Chief Minister calling on him to stop the work. On March 23, more than 500 people marched to the site and told the company people to vacate the place in three days. On 25 March, the CM called NBA activists Alok Agarwaal and Chittaroopa Palit and pleaded with them to allow construction. It is clear that the industrialist lobby is bringing enormous pressures on the CM.

The people had announced a big rally at the dam site on April 3. Baba Amte, noted social worker a dam-fighter, was set to address the rally. However, there is official pressure on Baba to stop his agitation against the dam. Alok Agarwaal has also been promised a position as the head of the Resettlement Committee if he abandons his anti-dam campaign.

On March 28, more than a thousand police sealed the dam site as a "safety precaution" for fear the NBA may do something on April 3. The NBA suspects this is simply a ploy to bring in the police and start construction. The people are surging with enthusiasm and also anger and are determined not to let the work start on the dam.

- Shripad Dharmadhikary