Note: Transformation Resource Centre (TRC), a Lesotho community development and human rights group, is working to bring moderation to the controversy over one of the largest dam building projects in the world. It’s getting help from an unlikely and very distant source: India’s famed Narmada Bachao Andolan.
The six-dam Lesotho Highlands Water Project, designed to provide water to South Africa, is now the largest public works project in Sub-Saharan Africa. TRC initially believed that the project’s potential benefits to the people of Lesotho would outweigh the harm. But as the financial, social and environmental costs of the dam continued to mount, citizens became increasingly angry. TRC efforts to broker dialogue between elected officials and local people had only limited impact when government leaders proved to be less sympathetic than hoped, and the people increasingly impatient.
In 2001, a protest brought violence to the region as overzealous police tried to block a peaceful protest and injured three elderly women. Recognizing the need to prevent an escalation of violence, TRC stepped in to help people in the affected communities channel their anger in more productive ways. The organization has formed a learning relationship with Narmada Bachao Andolan, a group well known for its success organizing a highly effective nonviolent campaign against dams on the River Narmada in India.
The following is an account of a trip to India by TRC representatives.
River Voices: Spirit, Struggle and Solidarity
When 2,000 people suddenly marched to protest unfulfilled promises of development from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), we knew we were part of something new. As community workers with the Lesotho nongovernmental organization Transformation Resource Centre, we were quite familiar with the quiet complaints of dam-affected people in Lesotho, but they had never before seemed willing to demonstrate their concerns in such a dramatic way.
We needed to build upon our existing advocacy skills and learn the unique strategies of community mobilization. Therefore, we decided to visit our NGO colleagues working in the Narmada Valley of India. The communities of the Narmada valley have a long history of resistance to dams. For 16 years they have advocated for their rights, and their protest strategies are unparalleled worldwide. This is the reason we went out of our way to go to India.
The dams along the Narmada were intended to provide hydroelectricity and water for irrigation. Unfortunately, what was not considered is that the Narmada valley, the most fertile in all of Asia, is a sacred one to people living there, and the Narmada is the most sacred of rivers. The Government of India cannot provide an adequate substitute to this, hence the 16-year resistance from local communities.
This belief in the sacredness of the Narmada was integral to the communities’ struggle. Whenever there was a community meeting, there was an element of prayer. Prayer had become a powerful weapon that united the people around the common good. Our activist colleagues from the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) did not tell us about these tactics; we observed them in action. The leaders’ chants kept people focused on the goal during long meetings. Children were always present, because, as we were told, “They are here to fight also; the future is theirs; they have to be here.” The activists live lives of austerity; some of them have fasted for many days in support of the affected people’s cause.
We witnessed the power of these tactics first-hand during the trial of Arundhati Roy, who was accused of having “defamed” the government of India by writing “improper” things about the government handling of dams and those affected by them. Heavily armed police tried to quash the protest march staged by the affected communities and NBA activists. But the communities huddled together, hand in hand, and refused to be moved anywhere. Ms. Roy was sentenced to one day in prison and fined 2000 rupees, and in a dramatic show of solidarity, the communities and activists went to prison with her. We had never seen anything like this before, serious commitment and dedication to a cause dear to them.
Even far out in the villages people repeatedly expressed their commitment. Many told us, “This land is mother to us, and we are willing to die for it. Just as mother gives birth, the land gives us everything. The government wants to give us cash. Cash is like ice; it quickly disappears. A government is also temporary. They govern for five years, but can destroy our lives for generations.” It is the many years of solidarity with the NBA activists and other NGOs that allows the communities to have the strength to say these things.
The importance of a unified approach to advocacy was the trip’s greatest lesson for us. In India, unity is strength, but in Lesotho it often feels like “every man is for himself.” We have now been inspired to develop a habit of coming together to give solidarity to those in need. It may be a lofty goal, but we envision that a mass movement for peace, justice, and participatory development can also be built in our part of the world.