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The Government of India is planning to build the 412 MW Rampur Hydropower Project in Himachal Pradesh with support from the World Bank. The Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests granted an environmental clearance to the project in March 2006.

Rainwater harvesting has improved harvests for this Indian family. (Credit: Patrick McCully)

In early 2006, after a gap of five years, work on one of the largest planned dams in the Narmada valley - the long-contested 400MW Maheshwar Hydropower Project - had resumed, only to be stopped again by the Indian federal government in June 2006. The dam would submerge the fertile lands and homes of 100,000 people. On June 9, 2006, the government ruled that all construction on the dam must cease immediately.