Impact of big dams
M. Vijayabaskar
INDIRECT ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF DAMS — Case Studies from India, Egypt and Brazil: Edited by Ramesh Bhatia, Rita Cestti, Monica Scatasta, R.P.S Malik; The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank Group and Academic Foundation, 4772/73, 23 Bharat Ram Road, (23 Ansari Road), Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 995.
In recent years, the World Bank has sought to fashion itself as a knowledge bank, generating “scientific” knowledge on various aspects of economic growth and development to push policy making in desired directions. This book, on the advantages of big dams, too is a part of the growing body of such knowledge production. Despite the increasing pessimism about the benefits of big dams in various quarters, it appears that they continue to figure prominently in main
stream developmental imaginary. Edited and authored by a set of academics from the World Bank, this book mobilises yet more evidence in its favour. The authors contend that while the direct benefits of big dams are in themselves substantial, the indirect benefits are even more important, particularly for emerging economies.
The book is therefore also a plea for reallocation of resources towards such infrastructure projects, away from direct social investments which the book claims, generate fewer indirect linkages. In doing so, the editors and the authors contest the priorities given by recent development thinking to millennium development goals like health care and education over building up productive capacities in the economy. Focusing on large infrastructure projects, the book argues, is a more tenable route to growth and development than addressing social services directly.
Method
The book’s contribution to the literature on big dams is primarily in terms of method. Though rooted in an extended cost-benefit analysis framework, the papers address largely the issue of capturing benefits accurately with only a peripheral discussion of social and economic costs that big dams entail. The magnitude of impacts that result directly from dams like increased output of agriculture, hydro-electric power generated and availability of drinking water can easily be measured. But indirect impacts that arise from linkages that a dam project has with the rest of the economy, society and the environment are hard to capture. Increase in demand for agricultural inputs due to increase in area under irrigation, incomes from processing of additional output, indirect employment generated, and impacts on sectors that cater to the increased consumption arising due to better incomes are hard to map and measure. Such ripple effects that big economic projects tend to have on the larger economy may be equally if not more substantial than the immediate and direct impacts.
The authors use tools like general equilibrium models and social accounting frameworks to capture the magnitude of the indirect impacts. The studies are primarily aimed at estimating multipliers that help us to understand the relationship between direct and indirect benefits. Based on the multipliers obtained, they argue that in the case of some dams, a direct income of one rupee generates about 70 paise of indirect income.
The book consists of two parts. The first part provides an overview of the literature on big dams, the methods used for estimating impacts, and the rationale for choice of methods.
Case studies
The second part provides results of the estimation for the various case studies. Case studies of three big dams, the Bhakra Dam, India, High Dam at Aswan, Egypt, Sobradinho Dam, Brazil and the check dams in Bunga, India are discussed. Interestingly, the case study of the small dam system in Bunga is used to underscore the higher indirect benefits of large dams in comparison to the small dams.
The book uses counterfactual scenarios like the extent of growth in the absence of these dams to build a case for their positive impacts. An interesting exercise that the book undertakes is also to look into the distribution of benefits across sections of the population. In more cases, the higher income groups tend to enjoy a greater share of the benefits, but the book does not dwell upon the implications of such disparate growth. The book’s other major contribution definitely lies in suggesting methods to ex-ante capture the indirect impacts of large scale projects that can go a long way in revising designs so as to maximise the beneficial linkages.
Coming as it does in a context crying for alternatives to the current trajectory of development marked by large scale displacement and violence, high energy use and environmental destruction, the book is definitely political, making out a case for old styled modernisation and growth. Neutral scientific analyses do not however reveal the political limits of such growth strategies. That other alternatives could have emerged in the absence of large dams too is not taken into account. It needs to be understood that the use of “either/or” scenarios tend to limit the possibility of imagining such alternate growth possibilities.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Book Review
