A flood of fiascos

THE Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river, in India, is a stark example of how the World Bank's conditions on resettlement and environmental damage—which were attached to its loan in 1985—could fail. An independent report found that, among other things, the benefits were over-estimated, environmental impact assessments were not done and resettlement conditions were not met. The Bank's own India department altered a study criticising the resettlement, to hide the problems from the Bank's directors. The loan was cancelled in 1993 and India's Supreme Court suspended construction in 1995. The angry protests against Sardar Sarovar became a model for others and focused attention on how bad dams could be.