Rivers must Flow

Dear All

Comment posted against the article "Rivers must Flow" published in DTE of CSE, New Delhi.......


It is the fact that Dams do benefit society. In our country, we need dams. The questions are:

@ How many?,
@ What should be the height, design etc.?,
@ When?,
@ Where?,
@ At what cost?,
@ Who is going to get the benefit?,
@ What will be the benefit to PAPs and other local community?
@ What will be the Resettlement & Rehabilitation package?
@ How it is going to balance the negative impacts on the surrounding environment?
@ Who is interested either locals or outsiders?,
@ What is the approach either top down or bottom up?,

............many and all needs to be answered before initiating the dam project.

In reality, there exist several gaps before starting the project which results for the non acceptance or rejection or conflicts with the local population or the project affected people (PAPs). The other factor is the insufficient and ineffective resettlement and rehabilitation programmes.

We all need development and certainly dams do support for the development in several ways. The need of the hour is to plan for the dams on NEED BASED STRATEGIES / APPROACHES with the participation of the PAPs and other stakeholders at all levels. The advantages should be optimized with the dis-advantages while planning the dam location, design, height, needs & demands, purpose etc.

This participated approach with need based strategies certainly works for wonders and thus to construct dams for the best use & management of the most precious natural resource WATER. With out water, there is no life and we cannot imagine it. Manage water for people's development only.

Looking forward for better management of the rivers for the sustainable development of the people as well as the area....