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The Narmada Dam Project, is a project involving the construction of a series of large hydroelectric dams on the Narmada River in India. The project was first conceived of in the 1940s by the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The project only took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme to increase irrigation and produce hydroelectricity.
Of the 30 large dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is the largest multipurpose project involved in the construction. With a proposed height of 136.5 m, it's also high on discord between the planners and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. The multi-purpose project will irrigate more than 18,000 square kilometres - most of it in drought prone areas like - Kutch and Saurashtra.
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Benefits of the dam
The expected benefits of the dam as listed in the Judgement of Supreme Court of India are as follows: The benefits expected to flow from the implementation of the Sardar Sarovar Project had been estimated as follows:
- Irrigation: 17,920 km² of land spread over 12 districts, 62 talukas and 3393 villages (75% of which is drought-prone areas) in Gujarat and 730 km² in the arid areas of Barmer and Jalore districts of Rajasthan.
Height issues
- In February 1999, the Supreme Court of India gave the go ahead for the dam's height to be raised to 88 metres from the initial 80.
- In October 2000 again, in a 2 to 1 majority judgement in the Supreme Court, the government was allowed to construct the dam up to 90 metres.
- In May 2002, the Narmada Control Authority approved increasing the height of the dam by another five metres.
- In March 2004, the Authority allowed another raise - this time to 110 metres.
- In March 2006, the Narmada Control Authority gave clearance for the height of the dam to increased from 110.64 metres to 121.92. (This comes after the Supreme Court of India had refused to stay the height of the Dam again in 2003)
Controversy
The Narmada dam is India's most controversial dam project and its environmental impact and net costs and benefits are widely debated. The Narmada Dam has been the centre of controversy and protest since the late 1980s.
Some protests, known as the "Narmada Bachao Andolan" (Save Narmada Movement) have been led by Medha Patkar. The World Bank was a funder of the SSP, but withdrew in 1990. Spanner Films's documentary Drowned Out (2002) follows one tribal family who decide to stay at home and drown rather than make way for the Narmada Dam. Indian author Arundhati Roy wrote the extended essay 'The Greater Common Good'(link: http://www.narmada.org/gcg/gcg.html) in protest of the Narmada Dam Project in her book "The Cost of Living".
The Supreme Court gave clearance for the height to be increased to 121.92 m (400 ft), but in the same judgment Mr. Justice Bharucha has given directions to Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (the Grievance Redressal Authorities of Gujarat) that before further construction begins, they should certify (after inspection) that all those displaced by the raise in height of 5 metres have already been satisfactorily rehabilitated, and also that suitable vacant land for rehabilitating them is already in the possession of the respective States. This process shall be repeated for every successive 5-metre increase in height.
References
- SARDAR SAROVAR NARMADA NIGAM LTD. (01/2002) retrieved 7/9/2007Narmada for People and Environment
- Scudder T. (2003) (SSP), Unpublished Manuscript, retrieved 7/9/2007India’s Sardar Sarovar Project
- Friends of River Narmada, retrieved 7/9/2007The Sardar Sarovar Dam: a Brief Introduction
- Dam-Affected Resettlement in Gujarat, by Chhandasi Pandya, retrieved July 13, 2007 http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10
External links
- Official website of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited
- Regularly updated news clippings about Narmada dams
- Concluding letter from Independent Review (also known as Morse Committee) constituted by World Bank in 1992 to assess Sardar Sarovar Dam Project djvu format or in pdf format.
