gone to great lengths to woo people at the dam site in Gujarat, but many times more people upriver will suffer the consequences. This ‘ ‘divide and rule’ ’ strategy has obscured the inefficiency of moving torrents of dammed water through kilometers of expensive open canals. The more appropriate alternative is micro-dams and rainwater reservoirs, which are already planned by small communities. These more sensible plans, however, are having their monies drained by the big projects and their matching international development loans. To those who will be refugees when the waters rise, it seems insane to spend billions, in an impoverished country, to drown fertile land in order to irrigate a piece of desert only a bit bigger. The government promises relocation programs that offer too little money and too poor land. Former farmers may move to the city to scavenge for food, as millions did after the building of dams in the questionable “green revolution” of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Because of silt and erosion, dams do not last as long as planned, and they rarely irrigate as much land as promised. The big dams never deliver enough water and power, especially to those in need, to make up for their social destruction. Good engineering is impossible when the real reasons for a project, greed and world trade, conflict with the stated reasons: to improve the life of the citizenry. The countryside then suffers to provide for urban economics. The river is now rising behind one dam after the rains of the monsoon season, according to Shriram Yadav of Narmada Bachao Andolan, a protest group that this year won the Swedish Right Livelihood Award. Yadav notes that the government has not even contacted several doomed villages. Perhaps on paper they have already been relocated. People’s needs simply disappear in these great plans. I went to interview Baba Amte on the banks of the Narmada - he’s camping out on its shores. He has taken a permanent leave from Anandwan — his beloved friends, patients, ex-patients and family alike. Baba is giving all he’s got to stop the dam, even if that means drowning under its waters. He cannot allow the government to define progress as destruction. Development must come from the entire society, not dictated from above. That is why the Narmada Valley struggle is not just over a river. It’s a battle in the long war for true democracy in India. The common people effected must have a voice in the decisions. The politicians cannot hear their own conscience, let alone the voices of the poor, over the clamor of vested interests. If the government was really interested in development, says Baba, it would promote in these villages inexpensive appropriate technologies, already proven effective, such as methane digesters, improved low-fuel cookstoves, solar heating and rainwater catchments. It would promote literacy and education to liberate women, the lower castes and the poverty stricken. Good planning includes sufficiency for all before excess for a few. Amte believes in an integrated approach to Baba Amte, founder ofAnandwan and one ofthe most respectedfigures in India, has moved to the banks ofthe Narmada River to organize hundreds ofthousands of villagers against the dam that will destroy their homes. development, seen at Anandwan, where everyone is taken into account and given responsibility. He has shown that physical leprosy can be cured, but he knows that the worst disease is in the minds of those who allow greed to dominate their actions. Amte lives by the river trying to harness the power of his international reputation as a social worker. Perhaps the government would find awkward the public outcry over his drowning and that of hundreds of others in the region who refuse to leave their land. “Let’s see how ruthless the state can be”, he says, although he has few doubts about its ruthlessness. Such a sacrifice might have a great impact since Amte, a poet whose books are widely read, has published much about the ecological and political repercussions of big dams. Redirecting the development of his country is Baba’s final project. He feels a sacrifice is the best he can do with his frail body, given that he had a severe heart attack this summer. This is his ultimate commitment to the ideals he has articulated so well for so many years. Rain Winter/Spring 1992 Volume XIV, Number 2 Page 27
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz