Do the benefits of Indias Sardar Sarovar dam justify its costs?
In the ongoing struggle over India’s Sardar Sarovar dam, can there be compromise between the need for economic development and local residents’ rights? Ask your own questions in our debate between protest leader Medha Patkar, founder of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada movement), and S.K. Mohapatra, managing director of the company overseeing construction of the dam. Learn more in our handbook about the issues involved in other controversial dam projects around the world, or get a visual overview of India’s water problems in our photo essay. Then, review the historical role of India’s dams in our briefing by journalist Diane Raines Ward, author of the critically acclaimed WATER WARS. Water Wants: A History of India’s Dams By Diane Raines Ward September 14, 2003 Water in India is a matter of extremes, veering between drought and floods, life and death. There is no other place on the planet with such wide vacillations between wet and dry. Water weighs so heavily on the Indian
