“Big Dams are to a nation’s ’development’ what nuclear bombs are to its military arsenal. They’re both weapons of mass destruction. They’re both weapons governments use to control their own people. Both 20th century emblems that mark a point in time when human intelligence has outstripped its own instinct for survival. They’re both malignant indications of civilisation turning upon itself. They represent the severing of the link, not just the link - the understanding - between human beings and the planet [we] live on. They scramble the intelligence that connects eggs to hens, milk to cows, food to forests, water to rivers, air to life and the earth to human existence.

"Maybe. Inch by inch. Bomb by bomb. Dam by dam.…We could begin in the Narmada valley.”

—Arundhati Roy, Author
The God of Small Things

Stop Dam Construction / Narmada Valley, India - Victory

For the past two years, rural families in India’s Narmada Valley have braved police brutality in a courageous non-violent struggle to stop construction of the Maheshwar Dam. If built, the Maheshwar Dam will submerge some of the richest agricultural lands in India and destroy the livelihoods of 40,000 farmers, fishers and craftspeople.

The Maheshwar Dam is one of 30 "large" dams proposed for construction along with 3,100 smaller dams on the Narmada River. Proponents of the Narmada dams claim that they will supply desperately needed drinking and irrigation water, and generate power for rural communities in three states. Critics, including award-winning novelist Arundhati Roy, point out that historically, India’s dams have "usurped the resources of the countryside and taken them to the city to serve a metropolitan elite." Millions of rural people will lose their livelihoods through the damming of the Narmada River. The World Bank found that resettlement of these displaced people was "not possible," and cancelled its loans for one of the large Narmada dams.

The "Save the Narmada Movement," defined by Arundhati Roy as "a rag-tag army of the poorest people in one of the world’s poorest countries," vigorously opposes construction of the "large" dams. Protesters have taken over the Maheshwar Dam site 8 times in the last 2 years, barricaded all roads leading to the dam for 3 months, and held mass demonstra-tions and indefinite hunger strikes opposing the dam. Thousands have been arrested and beaten. Twice, Global Response issued Emergency Actions calling on the Indian government to guarantee the safety of non-violent protesters at the Maheshwar Dam site.

Last spring, the persistent protests persuaded 2 German power utilities to withdraw 49% of the project equity, bringing construction on the dam to a halt.

But now the German government is considering approval of a $133 million loan guarantee for the Maheshwar Dam. If this guarantee is approved by the German export credit agency, Hermes, it will signal other investors and companies to get involved.

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