I thank Ben for bringing this up before I could.
Anthony D'Costa
On Thu, 9 Jun 1994, Ben Crow wrote:
> Andrew Sessions has posted the 'Manibeli Declaration', a proposal from the
> International Rivers Network, of Berkeley CA, that there be a
> moratorium on World Bank funding of large dams.
>
> Whilst I think the declaration makes several useful points about World Bank
> practices, and I hope that it raises the level of debate about what the
> World Bank does, I would want to note two reservations about the declaration.
>
> 1) as a critic on another list has already noted, there is a problem about
> people in glass houses throwing stones. Those of us (particularly in
> California) whose standard of living depends upon big dams are not in a strong
> position to declare that others should not have them.
>
> 2) there are strong reasons to believe that world food production (and
> particularly food production in India) during the last 25 years
> would not have exceeded population
> growth if the area of irrigated agriculture had expanded at a slower pace.
> It is true that not all irrigation comes from big dams, but a significant
> proportion of canal and groundwater irrigation depends upon water stored in
> big dams.
>
> This declaration is formulated in a way which potentially divides
> environmentalists (and neopopulists more generally) from those who
> argue that higher productivity (industrialization) is a pre-requisite
> for higher living standards.
>
> Ben Crow
> Food Research Institute
> Stanford.
>
