Asiaweek Magazine
May 8, 2006

As protests continue over dam-building, a landmark review calls for a rethink on future projects

After a wave of anti-globalization protests, World Bank president James Wolfensohn might have expected a demonstration or two during his tour of bank projects in India last month. He wasn’t disappointed. In Delhi, he came up against several thousand protesters camped outside the institution’s sleek offices, waving placards and clenched fists, demanding a meeting with him. The lives of these poor farmers, fishermen and tribal people are being thrown into turmoil by the mega-dam project on the Narmada River for which the bank had provided initial loans. Normally their views would never be heard. This time they were. They asked Wolfensohn to press the Narmada managers for an accounting of the funds ‚Äî and to give an assurance that the bank would not reverse its 1993 decision to withdraw from the project. "We made him listen to us," says protest leader Medha Patkar. Just a few years ago, chances of such a meeting taking place would have been slim. But international institutions such as the World Bank must now give greater consideration to the voices of the disadvantaged ‚Äî and pay closer attention to the terrible human and environmental costs often exacted in the name of progress. Few of the conflicts over development have roused such bitter, persistent divisions as large dams. Thus it made sense that the bank, for decades the biggest single financier of these projects in the developing world, should be the driving force behind a comprehensive review. Its vehicle: the World Commission on Dams, an organization formed in 1998 specifically to bring together industry representatives, governments and green activists.