Hotline Asia Urgent Appeals -- SUA020903(10)

Stop Submerging Families in Narmada Valley
~ INDIA ~
3 September 2002

Action Requested || Sample Letter || Background
Please respond before 20 September 2002
Update

Summary

Due to heavy and intermittent rains in the catchment area and upstream of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) the water level in Narmada has suddenly risen at an alarming rate, causing enormous devastation and destruction of the houses and crops of the tribal families in the Narmada Valley. At the water level of 102m, over half a dozen villages are totally submerged.

It was reported that the submergence has occurred under the alleged indifference of the Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra governments to the fate of the tribals and thousands of families who are still to be rehabilitated. Their rehabilitation is a pre-requisite for continuing the construction of the SSP and the courts have ordered the three governments to care for the displaced. Moreover, it was understood that they have agreed to increase the height of the SSP dams to 110m by October 2002, even though the people affected by a water level at 90m are still being enumerated.

An ancient temple has been half submerged, while villagers and activists (or satyagrahis who have opted for non-violent resistance), braving the rising waters, have refused to move, in opposition to the unjust submergence. Late on the night of 20 August 2002, the district administration intervened with about 200 police personnel, arrested about 20 people who were sentenced to 15 days judicial custody. Many of them have allegedly been arrested on false charges.
 
Action Requested

Please write polite letters to express your concern at the arrests, massive devastation due to submergence and at the further increase of the height of the dam of the SSP without any plans for proper rehabilitation. Urge the authorities to:

  1. immediately open the sluice gates of the Sardar Sarovar Dam to prevent further submergence of villages;

  2. stop further increases in the height of Sardar Sarovar dam until meaningful dialogue is initiated with the affected people and their representatives, and until all affected people are effectively rehabilitated; and

  3. immediately release all the activists who were arrested on 20 August 2002.

Send letters to:    
Vilas Rao Deshmukh
Chief Minister of Maharashtra		 Fax: 91-22-2029214
91-22-3633272
91-22-3631446 (residence)
Digvijay Singh
Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh		 Fax: 91-755-540501
91-755-551781
Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat Fax: 91-271222101
91-3223467
91-3243726 (residence)
Send copies to:    
Diplomatic Representatives of India in your country.
 

Sample Letter

We write with deep concern about the grave situation faced by adivasis and villagers living in the submergence zone of the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Reports on the submergence of half a dozen adivasi villages and the devastation of farmlands in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh due to the rise in water level was shocking enough. We have also received disturbing reports regarding arbitrary arrests of and allegedly false charges against satyagrahis who have been non-violently protesting against forced submergence.

We are aware that the problem of rehabilitation of villagers in Sardar Sarovar has not yet been settled since its re-construction in the 1990s. Moreover, the shocking reports of your state government's agreement to further increase the dam height by October 2002 is contrary to the state's duty to respect and protect the human rights of adivasis and villagers in the Narmada valley.

As it is your duty as the state government to ensure the welfare of all the people of your state, we urge your authorities to:

  1. immediately open the sluice gates of the Sardar Sarovar Dam to prevent further submergence of villages;
  2. stop further increase in the height of Sardar Sarovar dam until meaningful dialogue is initiated with the affected people and their representatives, and until all affected people are effectively rehabilitated; and
  3. immediately release all the activists who were arrested on 20 August 2002.
 

Background

Incessant rains and the illegal increase in the height of the SSP, as planned by the government, has resulted in a major submergence in the submergence zone of Sardar Sarovar in the Narmada valley. The water level had crossed the 99 meters mark at the dam site by the night of 20 August 2002 and was rapidly rising at the rate of 1 feet per hour. As of 25 August, the water level at dam site was 101 meters, but as the monsoon brings heavy rainfall in the catchment area, there is every possibility of more submergence and devastation. The increase in dam height is illegal because it is in violation of a Supreme Court order. This increase in water level can be stopped by opening sluice gates at the dam and allowing the flow of water downstream.

Hundreds of adivasis in the Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh villages are already engulfed by the rising waters, which also affected titled lands in many of the villages. In Gujarat, rising waters have destroyed large tracts of standing crops leading to the threat of lurking famine. The ancient temple in Hapheshwar, Gujarat was already half submerged.

Many houses in Maharashtra have been submerged and some were washed away. Satyagraha (literally "resistance rooted in love and non violence" but the name used to refer to activists using non-violent methods) sites in both states, where the resistance from submergence were being held, have also been submerged.

The activists ("satyagrahis") in Maharashtra have been standing in the waters rising to their necks, while more villagers were joining them to protest against the submergence. On the night of 20 August 2002, while resisting the rising waters of Narmada in a Satyagraha house, villagers broke open the walls of Satyagraha house and moved them out of the neck deep water to the next house.

A 200 strong police force intervened by forcibly evicting and arresting people from the village of Domkhedi and others. On the morning of 21 August, the Maharashtra police arrested and detained a number of activists and villagers in Domkhedi and other villages. They have reportedly released only 10 of the arrested people, after keeping them under judicial custody on 21 August night. It may take one or two days to bail out the other Satyagrahis as they were allegedly falsely charged under a number of sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC).

About 6500 families of 70 villages would be adversely affected at the present height of the dam in Madhya Pradesh. In Maharashtra, the recently finished Task Force study has categorically stated that below the 95m height mark of the dam, at least 1000 families have not yet been rehabilitated. If the monsoon brings heavy rainfall in the catchment area, there is every possibility of more villages being affected.

Behind the Increasing Dam Height:

The Gujarat government has increased the height of the dam up to 95 meters (plus 3 meters of humps), violating all the laws, rules and normal human considerations. According to the source, the Madhya Pradesh government has supported this atrocious step and the Central government colluded with this design. This was in violation of the provisions of the Supreme Court order which limited the height of the dam. Surprisingly, the Supreme Court did not act against this illegal act, even when the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA, a local movement to save the Narmada Valley) had approached the Court in May 2002, but allowed construction to resume.

On 17 May 2002, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA), the inter-state monitoring body for rehabilitation and environment, gave clearance to raise the height of the controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam from 90 to 95 meters, despite serious lapses in the rehabilitation of over 3500 families affected at the dam height of 90m (as per the provisions of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award), and the non-fulfillment of environmental and other conditions. At least 10,000 tribal and non-tribal families will face submergence and displacement, along with the pristine forest land.

The submergence in the SSP comes on the heels of the submergence of the villages in the Maan (or Man) area [see SUA020605(8)] and the forcible displacement of the people without any resettlement. The NBA claimed that the Madhya Pradesh government has acted in a most callous way regarding the entire displacement and resettlement. It is now the turn of the Gujarat and Central governments.

Observers claim that the Sardar Sarovar and Narmada issue has been a handy issue for Gujarat politicians to wriggle out their current political crisis. In this case, it is claimed that the decision to raise the height of the SSP at a time of political and social crisis in Gujarat, has been used by the Narendra Modi government, who was accused of engineering terrible communal carnage [see SUA020328(5)], to escape infamy.

The government of Maharashtra has not overtly supported the increase in Dam height, although it has not opposed it with conviction, despite its commitment to the NBA that it would oppose an increase in height pending the report of its Task Force on submergence and rehabilitation.

The NBA has condemned the callous, irresponsible and inhuman attitude of all the state governments for causing unjust submergence and calls upon for immediate release of water by opening the gates and keeping them open until proper rehabilitation of all the affected families.

Sources:

  • Narmada Bachao Andolan
  • International Rivers Network
  • Friends of Narmada

For recent updates, please see also the related press release:
 

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