Cindy Carr, cindy.carr@sierraclub.org
MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA -- Earlier this week, Goldman Prize winner Medha Patkar ended her nine-day fast in protest of the Narmada Valley Development Project, the largest river dam in India. Patkar is scheduled to have talks with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s emissary and chief secretary on September 9.
To date, the Sardar Sarovar Dam has displaced nearly 250,000 people -- specifically the Adivasi and Dalit communities -- and washed away hundreds of villages, thousands of hectares of cropland and forests, and destroyed countless cultural and religious icons. Patkar won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 1992 for her work fighting the destructive dams in the Narmada River Valley.
The groups in India resisting the dams have demanded:
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The water level of Sardar Sarovar should be kept constant at 122 meters till rehabilitation of all the 32 thousand affected is completed as per policy.
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The permission granted by the authorities to fill the dam to full reservoir level of 138.68 meters should be kept in abeyance until all the affected are rehabilitated.
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The affected population of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat should be rehabilitated by providing complete civic amenities and means of livelihood before submergence.
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All data and documents related to rehabilitation should be made public on the website so that new corruption can be curbed.
In response, Sierra Club International Environmental Justice Representative Neha Mathew-Shah released the following statement:
"The Sierra Club rises in solidarity with Medha Patkar and all the families and communities that have been displaced from their homes by the Indian government’s reckless and destructive development of dams along the Narmada river. We are gravely concerned with the ongoing humanitarian and ecological crisis the dam has created, and we join our allies across India and the world in calling for justice for the people of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. As part of an international community, we are watching, and we hope the Madhya Pradesh government will stand by the commitments made by its Chief Minister on rehabilitation of impacted people.”
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Read the Sierra Club’s 2014 interview with Medha Patkar here.
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