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Britain’s Overseas Development Administration has launched an attempt
to rescue the Sardar Sarovar dam project on India’s Narmada River. In talks
last week, Lewis Preston, president of the World Bank, which has paid for
much of the work, accepted an offer of $500 000 of technical assistance
from the ODA.

But critics of the $3 billion dam, which will displace more than 100
000 people, most of them tribal farmers, have not welcomed the ODA initiative.
‘This aid is too small to solve the fundamental problems affecting the project,’
says Sripad Dharmadhikary of Narmada Bachao Andalan (the Save the Narmada
Movement).

The World Bank has been widely criticised for its failure to assess
the dam’s environmental impact or to address the issue of resettling the
people it will displace. In June, an independent review team, commissioned
by the bank itself, said: ‘Human and environmental concerns have been subordinated
to engineering and construction demands.’ The bank responded by drawing
up an action plan that was supposed to take into account the review team’s
misgivings. Then last month, the bank’s executive directors voted by a small
majority to continue funding the project (This Week, 31 October). David
Peretz, Britain’s representative, voted in favour of funding, explaining
that ‘the best hope for rescuing the project is offered by continued World
Bank engagement’. The project has now been given ‘one last and final chance’,
in the form of a performance review next April.

In the meantime, the ODA believes that British expertise on key issues,
such as the environment and resettlement, can succeed where the bank has
failed. It hopes to defuse the conflict between the bank and local people
by involving pressure groups in the process. This Friday, senior ODA officials
will meet Dharmadhikary and a tribal farmer, Bijya Juglaya, in an attempt
to find common ground.

‘We hope to find out from them how our technical assistance can best
help and how we can work together with non-governmental organisations,’
says an ODA representative.

But the Save the Narmada Movement hopes to persuade the ODA to withdraw
its ‘misconceived’ rescue attempt. Dharmadhikary says: ‘We will explain
to the ODA the reality on the ground, and how the action plan and monitoring
as agreed today are full of gaps and can only worsen the situation.’

Oxfam has also been invited to participate in the rescue attempt, and
is contemplating its response. But the charity has made it clear that it
shares the Save the Narmada Movement’s concerns. ‘Resettlement provisions
in particular are still inadequate,’ says a spokesman.

Despite its commitment to the project, the ODA insists it will take
a tough line on the bank’s future performance. ‘The bank has until April
to get it right,’ says an official. ‘We will be keeping a very critical
eye on the project, and if things don’t improve dramatically we will certainly
not be continuing our support.