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Author: Allen F. Isaacman Publisher: Ohio University Press ISBN: 0821444506 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 309
Book Description
Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi River, built in the early 1970s during the final years of Portuguese rule, was the last major infrastructure project constructed in Africa during the turbulent era of decolonization. Engineers and hydrologists praised the dam for its technical complexity and the skills required to construct what was then the world’s fifth-largest mega-dam. Portuguese colonial officials cited benefits they expected from the dam—from expansion of irrigated farming and European settlement, to improved transportation throughout the Zambezi River Valley, to reduced flooding in this area of unpredictable rainfall. “The project, however, actually resulted in cascading layers of human displacement, violence, and environmental destruction. Its electricity benefited few Mozambicans, even after the former guerrillas of FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) came to power; instead, it fed industrialization in apartheid South Africa.” (Richard Roberts) This in-depth study of the region examines the dominant developmentalist narrative that has surrounded the dam, chronicles the continual violence that has accompanied its existence, and gives voice to previously unheard narratives of forced labor, displacement, and historical and contemporary life in the dam’s shadow.
Author: Allen F. Isaacman Publisher: Ohio University Press ISBN: 0821444506 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 309
Book Description
Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi River, built in the early 1970s during the final years of Portuguese rule, was the last major infrastructure project constructed in Africa during the turbulent era of decolonization. Engineers and hydrologists praised the dam for its technical complexity and the skills required to construct what was then the world’s fifth-largest mega-dam. Portuguese colonial officials cited benefits they expected from the dam—from expansion of irrigated farming and European settlement, to improved transportation throughout the Zambezi River Valley, to reduced flooding in this area of unpredictable rainfall. “The project, however, actually resulted in cascading layers of human displacement, violence, and environmental destruction. Its electricity benefited few Mozambicans, even after the former guerrillas of FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) came to power; instead, it fed industrialization in apartheid South Africa.” (Richard Roberts) This in-depth study of the region examines the dominant developmentalist narrative that has surrounded the dam, chronicles the continual violence that has accompanied its existence, and gives voice to previously unheard narratives of forced labor, displacement, and historical and contemporary life in the dam’s shadow.
Author: Nathan Einbinder Publisher: Springer ISBN: 331951511X Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 103
Book Description
Using the case of the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam in Guatemala, constructed between 1978 and 1983, this book examines the effects of displacement on the former residents of Río Negro, a community forcibly evicted and nearly eliminated by the military and paramilitary. Using open-ended interview discussions and testimonies, it focuses on this specific incident of displacement and violence and discusses the outcomes 30 years later. Guatemala’s history is plagued by development projects that resulted in displacement, violence, and increased marginalization of its indigenous and non-indigenous populations. In order to make way for development initiatives such as the production of bananas, African palm, coffee and sugar cane; the extraction of metals such as gold and nickel; or, in this specific case, the construction of a hydroelectric dam, the land-based, predominately Maya campesinos have been systematically uprooted from the lands of their birth and launched into uncertainty. The research findings presented, based on fieldwork conducted from January to April 2009, suggest that the majority of survivors from the massacres that took place are still adversely affected by the destruction of their families and livelihoods. While the circumstances pertaining to this event are unique, similar struggles over land and human rights continue into the present — and if policies remain unchanged, in both international development agencies as well as the Guatemalan government, clashes of this nature only increase in time.
Author: C. J. De Wet Publisher: Berghahn Books ISBN: 9781845450953 Category : Economic development projects Languages : en Pages : 234
Book Description
Some ten million people worldwide are displaced or resettled every year, due to development projects, such as the construction of dams, irrigation schemes, urban development, transport, conservation or mining projects. The results have usually been very negative for most of those people who have to move, as well as for other people in the area, such as host populations. People are often left socially and institutionally disrupted and economically worse-off, with the environment also suffering as a result of the introduction of infrastructure and increased crowding in the areas to which people had to move. The contributors to this volume argue that there is a complexity, and a tension, inherent in trying to reconcile enforced displacement of people with the subsequent creation of a socio-economically viable and sustainable environment. Only when these are squarely confronted, will it be possible to adequately deal with the problems and to improve resettlement policies.
Author: Sanjeev Khagram Publisher: Cornell University Press ISBN: 1501727397 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 287
Book Description
Big dams built for irrigation, power, water supply, and other purposes were among the most potent symbols of economic development for much of the twentieth century. Of late they have become a lightning rod for challenges to this vision of development as something planned by elites with scant regard for environmental and social consequences—especially for the populations that are displaced as their homelands are flooded. In this book, Sanjeev Khagram traces changes in our ideas of what constitutes appropriate development through the shifting transnational dynamics of big dam construction. Khagram tells the story of a growing, but contentious, world society that features novel and increasingly efficacious norms of appropriate behavior in such areas as human rights and environmental protection. The transnational coalitions and networks led by nongovernmental groups that espouse such norms may seem weak in comparison with states, corporations, and such international agencies as the World Bank. Yet they became progressively more effective at altering the policies and practices of these historically more powerful actors and organizations from the 1970s on. Khagram develops these claims in a detailed ethnographic account of the transnational struggles around the Narmada River Valley Dam Projects in central India, a huge complex of thirty large and more than three thousand small dams. He offers further substantiation through a comparative historical analysis of the political economy of big dam projects in India, Brazil, South Africa, and China as well as by examining the changing behavior of international agencies and global companies. The author concludes with a discussion of the World Commission on Dams, an innovative attempt in the late 1990s to generate new norms among conflicting stakeholders.
Author: Hussein M. Fahim Publisher: Elsevier ISBN: 1483149676 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 204
Book Description
Dams, People and Development: The Aswan High Dam Case covers the issues concerning Aswan High Dam. Comprised of nine chapters, the book encompasses topics such as engineering, environmental implications, and hazards. Chapter 1 talks about the second dam at Aswan, while Chapter 2 deals with the controversies regarding the dam. The third chapter covers the human perspective on the dam. Chapter 4 discusses land inundation and population displacement, while Chapter 5 talks about the inhabitants of the lake. Chapter 6 deals with urban growth and water problems. The seventh chapter tackles the development potential of lake resources, and the eighth chapter discusses lake development. The last chapter deals with water, policies, and national development. This book is a great source of information on erecting dams, since it covers several aspects relevant to city planners, engineers, and government agencies concerned with infrastructures.
Author: Bryan Tilt Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 023153826X Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 281
Book Description
China is home to half of the world's large dams and adds dozens more each year. The benefits are considerable: dams deliver hydropower, provide reliable irrigation water, protect people and farmland against flooding, and produce hydroelectricity in a nation with a seeimingly insatiable appetite for energy. As hydropower responds to a larger share of energy demand, dams may also help to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, welcome news in a country where air and water pollution have become dire and greenhouse gas emissions are the highest in the world. Yet the advantages of dams come at a high cost for river ecosystems and for the social and economic well-being of local people, who face displacement and farmland loss. This book examines the array of water-management decisions faced by Chinese leaders and their consequences for local communities. Focusing on the southwestern province of Yunnan—a major hub for hydropower development in China—which encompasses one of the world's most biodiverse temperate ecosystems and one of China's most ethnically and culturally rich regions, Bryan Tilt takes the reader from the halls of decision-making power in Beijing to Yunnan's rural villages. In the process, he examines the contrasting values of government agencies, hydropower corporations, NGOs, and local communities and explores how these values are linked to longstanding cultural norms about what is right, proper, and just. He also considers the various strategies these groups use to influence water-resource policy, including advocacy, petitioning, and public protest. Drawing on a decade of research, he offers his insights on whether the world's most populous nation will adopt greater transparency, increased scientific collaboration, and broader public participation as it continues to grow economically.
Author: Bogumil Terminski Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 3838267230 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 613
Book Description
This book explores the issue of development-induced resettlement, with a particular emphasis on the humanitarian, legal, and social aspects of this problem. Today, so-called 'development-induced displacement and resettlement' (DIDR) is one of the dominant causes of internal spatial mobility worldwide. Each year over 15 million people are forced to abandon their homes to make space for economic development infrastructure. The construction of dams and irrigation projects, the expansion of communication networks, urbanization and re-urbanization, the extraction and transportation of mineral resources, forced evictions in urban areas, and population redistribution schemes count among the many possible causes.Terminski aims to present the issue of development-caused displacement as a highly diverse, global social problem occurring in all regions of the world. As a human rights issue it poses a challenge to public international law and to institutions providing humanitarian assistance. A significant part of this book is devoted to the current dynamics of development-caused resettlement in Europe, which has been neglected in the academic literature so far.
Author: Peter Vandergeest Publisher: UBC Press ISBN: 077485975X Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 290
Book Description
As multilateral agencies, social movements, and state authorities worldwide struggle to cope with the effects of large-scale development projects, the problem of displacement remains unresolved. This volume seeks to address displacement as a broad and multilayered phenomenon. A series of illustrative case studies drawn from around the globe provide causal accounts of why and how displacement occurs, what its effects on communities, ecosystems, and economies look like, and the normative or ethical positions held by key actors involved. Contributors offer economic, political, and cultural analyses, as well as extensive ethnographic field research, to present a picture of displacement that illustrates the depth and the breadth of the issue.
Author: Namita Gupta Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 1527510042 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 198
Book Description
Since the 1990s, development-induced displacement has emerged as a major human rights concern. At the heart of this debate lie the issues of equity, governance, justice and power. There are many examples of dam-induced displacement and resettlement being mismanaged and thus leading to enormous social and environmental costs. The developing impasse necessitated fresh insights into the lives of affected people, and a review of assumptions, questions and options in social engineering, a challenge that was taken up in sociological and anthropological research. This book is an endeavour to fill this gap by providing a comprehensive outlook on the human rights issues involved in development induced displacement. This book is a sincere effort to provide a critical analysis of the environmental, social and economic impacts of development projects. It further calls for a serious deliberation on the human rights aspects of development induced displacement.
Author: Irge Satiroglu Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317642430 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
Every year millions of people are displaced from their homes, livelihoods and communities due to land-based development projects. There is no limit to what can be called a ‘development project’. They can range from small-scale infrastructure or mining projects to mega hydropower plants; can be public or private, well-planned or rushed into. Knowledge of development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) remains limited even after decades of experience and research. Many questions are yet unanswered: What is "success" in resettlement? Is development without displacement possible or can resettlement be developmental? Is there a global safeguard policy or do we need an international right ‘not to be displaced’? This book revisits what we think we know about DIDR. Starting with case studies that challenge some of the most widespread preconceptions, it goes on to discuss the ethical aspects of DIDR. The book assesses the current laws, policies and rights governing the sector, and provides a glimpse of how the displaced people defend themselves in the absence of effective governance and safeguard mechanisms. This book is a valuable resource for students and researchers in development studies, population and development, and migration and development.
Author: Allen F. Isaacman
Author: Allen F. Isaacman
Author: Nathan Einbinder
Author: C. J. De Wet
Author: Sanjeev Khagram
Author: Hussein M. Fahim
Author: Bryan Tilt
Author: Bogumil Terminski
Author: Peter Vandergeest
Author: Namita Gupta
Author: Irge Satiroglu