World Bank Dam Projects in India

India is the largest recipient of cumulative World Bank lending, with infrastructure lending being a focal point of the Bank’s assistance to the country. The World Bank’s support for large projects in India has a contentious history, starting with its involvement in the on the Narmada River. Strong opposition and an independent review documenting numerous policy violations led to an embarrassing withdrawal of Bank support from the Sardar Sarovar Project in 1993. After that, the World Bank distanced itself from lending for large dams in India for over ten years. The Bank’s management has consistently refused to accept its responsibility for the unresolved social and environmental legacy of its dam projects in India.

In December 2003, the World Bank decided to double its infrastructure lending for India and announced that it was going to resume lending to large dams. Shortly thereafter, the institution announced its plans to provide financial support for the Rampur Hydropower Project in Northern India. "The Bank is set to repeat its mistakes all over again. The World Bank’s new dam building plans will pour more water into the leaking tubs of India’s water and power sectors. The Bank seems to be suffering from a case of institutional amnesia," says Peter Bosshard, Policy Director of International Rivers.

World Bank Country Assistance Strategy

In August 2004, the World Bank published the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for India, which spells out the Bank’s strategy for India for the fiscal years 2005-2008. In this strategy, the World Bank proposes to double loans to India, and to spend $550 million on new dams in 2005-08. Indian civil society groups reject the CAS for its inadequate consultation process, and its proscription of failed development policies and projects. "Civil society organizations question the credibility of this strategy document, which fails the most minimum standards of academic rigour in analysis, particularly given that the funding linked to this document would have overarching and deep implications, and has been prepared and circulated without any consultation and sanction of both the Indian Parliament and the State Legislatures."

Background

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This strategy spells out the Bank’s assistance to India for Fiscal Years 2005-2008.

New World Bank Strategy Proposes $550m for Dams in India

International Rivers’s press release on the 2004 World Bank Country Assistance Strategy for India.

Civil Society Organizations Reject World Bank Country Assistance Strategy

Press release by Indian NGOs on the 2004 World Bank Country Assistance Strategy.

NGO Letter in Response to the World Bank's Country Assistance Strategy for India

NGO Letter to the World Bank Board of Directors regarding the 2004 Country Assistance Strategy.

Critique of the World Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy for India

This International Rivers critique provides a short analysis of the main proposals entailed in the CAS.

Take a look at this document in comparison to the World Bank’s Final Country Assistance Strategy for India.

Michael F. Carter’s response to the letter to the World Bank Board of Directors.