South Asia / Articles

I woke up not knowing what time it was, and not even sure where I was. My watch still gave the time in Europe, and the room was unfamiliar. Finally, it dawned on me: it was five in the morning and I was in a small inn in Washington, DC, walking distance from the World Bank, which would be my target in the next few days. It was Annual Meeting time again.

The article "A Region's Thirst", by Ann-Kathrin Schneider, was first published in the magazine Himalmag in Sept 2007. It describes new trends in hydropower development and dam building in South Asia. It concludes that India is in the midst of a newfound drive to harness its water resources, and those of its neighbours, to secure an adequate supply of energy.

On December 31, 2006, the wall of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in India’s Narmada valley was raised to 122 meters. The Sardar Sarovar Dam is the largest in a series of dams, reservoirs and canals that control the flow of the Narmada River, the fifth largest river in India. With this height increase, the dam will flood more than 37,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land and raise the number of displaced people to 320,000. Many of the affected people are indigenous advasis and farmers, who are left with no viable option for resettlement. On the first of January, hundreds of affected people gathered to protest the injustices of this large dam project.

By Himanshu Thakkar, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People

In sectors such as steel, automobiles, oil and gas, wind and hydro power, Indian companies and state-owned enterprises have rapidly expanded their overseas investments in recent years. Not least motivated by the example of Chinese investors, they are trying to gain access to foreign resources, win international contracts, and strengthen their relations with trading blocks such as the ASEAN countries. They have had a presence in neighboring countries such as Nepal and Bhutan for a long time, and are now also spreading to more distanced countries in Asia and Africa.

This article by Ann-Kathrin Schneider first appeared in World Rivers Review in February 2007. It is a plea to the World Bank to take responsibility for the Bank's failed projects and to compensate those harmed by its failures. The article discusses the World Bank-funded National Drainage Project in Pakistan that violated six of the Bank's safeguard policies and led to the loss of lives and livelihoods in Sindh province, Pakistan.