Bhakra Nangal Project : social-economic and environmental impacts

The recent general election in India has demonstrated, beyond any doubt, that the one issue that occupies centre stage in most states is water. It is a subject that has agitated not just rural agriculturists but also people in the cities and towns. Another issue of near-equal importance to the common man and the elite in India, is that of electric power, which is also linked to water resource development in many ways. When freshwater resources are limited and unevenly distributed over time and space, the storage of water for meeting demands round the year becomes necessary. Thus, India has built dams-large and small-over centuries, but particularly after Indian Independence. In the past decade or two, certain articulate groups have criticized the tendency to build more dams on the grounds that their social and environ mental costs have been devastatingly high. It would be possible to examine the tenability of this allegation if there were enough records and published information relating to the actual performance of the hundreds of such schemes already completed and serving the national needs. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of such credible analyses that would enable a dispassionate scrutiny of the various allegations against dams.

Almost all schemes involving dams have been built in the public sector by one governmental agency or another. Governments all over the world are very selective in revealing data and information collected over the years but buried in their files. India, too, is no exception to this general pattern. Thus, it is not surprising that hardly any independent and reliable studies of completed schemes are available in India. On the other hand, attempts by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private individuals to obtain the relevant data in order to conduct studies on their own, have also not been too successful. This has led to the proliferation of conjectures and patently incorrect information, which, by and large, depict a bleak record of dams. The Third World Centre for Water Management (TWCWM) should, therefore, be congratulated for initiating a research study of selected dams.