China Three Gorges Dam vs India Delhi Dam - Why We See NIMBYism in Some Locations and Not Others - Essay Example

COMPARISON OF NIMBYISM BETWEEN CHINA THREE GORGES DAM AND INDIA DELHI DAM Introduction Dams are huge barriers that are built across rivers, streams, or major watercourses to restrain and utilize the flow of water for human purposes such as controlling flooding, generating hydroelectric power, or for irrigation. When the water is confined, the water body created appears like lake or reservoirs. In this paper, I seek to understand why we see NIMBYism in some locations and not others. This happens because of differences the nature and history of the two projects, government structures, political influence, as well as different influence generated by non-governmental organizations to the people in the most affected locations. Factors Investigated While the authoritarian government in China hardly allows people to give own opinions, people in India have the power to complain and provide personal opinions. Due to this difference, transnational movements have great influence over the Indian people than the Chinese people. India enjoys these privileges because the country endures a democratic regime. The other key factor discussed in the paper that also creates the difference is the history of each dam project. The Indian project is much older and has resulted to more damages as compared to the Chinese dam project. People in India would more likely to perceive future disasters than the Chinese people making their case more complicated. This implies that political structure is the most important as analyzed in the paper. Start and End of the Projects Dr. Yat-Sen first proposed Chinese Three Gorges dam project with the main objective being to control the flooding of Yangtze River and generation of electricity. However, according to a public opinion survey by Chetham, the local population felt that the extra energy generated by the project would not benefit them as the project was aimed at producing energy not intended to the local consumers. The dam spans River Yangtze by the Sandouping town. The dam is the largest power station in the world with respect to its installation capacity of 22,500 MW. The Three Gorges Dam became fully functional in early July 2012, but the dam itself was completed in the year 2006. At this time, the main turbines within the underground plant started production of hydroelectric power. Every main turbine is known to yield a power capacity of up to 700MW. In total, the project has 32 main turbines, which together with other smaller generators, 22,500MW of electric power is generated. On the other hand, the Delhi Dam project started with an embankment dam specifically on River Maquoketa. It was situated about two and half kilometers on the southwestern side of Delhi. In the course of its construction, the dam failed subsequently especially on 24 July 2010, due to heavy rains (Veeck, Ponnell, Smith, and Huang). Both the lake and the dam form part of Turtle Creek Recreation Area. Community group unlike the Chinese government, which owns the Three Gorges Dam, owns it. The project can be traced back to the years between 1922 and 1929. It later ceased operation after significant damages, but the modern project started in 2008 and it was expected to end in 2010. Nevertheless, lake Delhi dam has only been used as a recreational site since then. It was on 26 January 2014, when the officials of the dam received a long awaited federal permit that cleared the construction of the washed dam. The construction is set to begin dung 2014s’ spring. Census Information The exact location of the Three Gorges Dam is Sandouping Town. The town’s economy is closely linked to the river along which the dam is constructed. The dam is one of the major local enterprises influencing the areas. The town’s demographics information is as follows: Table 1: Sandouoing Data Sandouping Data Latitude 30.81 / 30° 48 35.9994" Longitude 111.0172222 / 111° 1 1.9992" Province Hubei Country China Continent Asia Population Size 35,020 The local incomes of the local population changed significantly because of the construction of Chinese Three Gorges Dam, approximately 60, 000 households were employed in the different phases of construction of the dam. They were meagerly paid and their working conditions were very poor. This means that the economic status of the local community is relatively poor. World Report stated that every family of five people would get 29,000 Yuan as compensation for their displacement; however, the opinion of the local communities indicated that those who were entitled to the funds never really got the money (Singh 24). This affected heavily their local capital as the Three Gorges area, specifically, is highly populated. The Chinese census showed that the Three Gorges area is three times more populated than the average national population density (Singh 25). In India, the construction of the dam caused more damage to the economic situation of the local residents. Before the construction of the dam, the local residents were spending $154 Million but after the construction of the lake, the annual expenditure of the local residents dropped by $88 Million to result to $34.3 Million annual spending. The local income decline in the Delhi lake region is also associated with the loss of income from the displaced people who had lost their source of living because of construction of the dam (Sen). This led to decline in the value of Lake Delhi Assessed Property by 17.7% because of flooding. Consequently, the Property Tax Revenue of the area dropped by $1.2 Million causing a lot of challenges for the local residents who were faced with huge bank loans default with no hope of rebuilding. Factors resulting to major differences Both China and India have different forms of governments and political practices. China has an authoritarianism form of government, which bars its people from making decisions or providing personal views regarding government and regional projects. The people of China are only left with the option of leaving projects under the control of the authorities despite the negative impact that such project could pose to the wellbeing of the local communities. This may give the reason while the Chinese had to suffer occasionally from the dam project, but even with less compensation compared to the damages, the project goes on later (Jenkins 41). The Chinese population has little or no influence from multinational corporations unlike Indian population who can protect against the Indian government against any misleading decisions. This happens due to the nature of Indian government of being democratic. India also has more influence from multinational corporations than China. Comparison between the two Dams Scope and Location Both the Chinese Three Gorges Dam and the Delhi Dam are among the largest dam projects ever developed in the main rivers in both countries. The dams are located in proximate locations where research activities could be initiated easily. The Delhi Dam is located in Delhi Township in Delaware County and specifically near Delhi, Iowa. With this location, the center of research, which is the Delhi University, could easily conduct all research activities that are meant to complete the project. Regarding the China’s Three Gorges Dam, the choice of its location was also based on predefined purpose (Gleick). The initiator and developer of the university was also a local university. The country’s Three Gorges University was to conduct the research required to complete the project. The dam is located on a strategic location along the river in order to hold the largest water reservoir possible and develop the maximum height possible. These two aspects were meant to maximize the generation of power along the river among all other possible projects along the same river (Li 37). The two dams are also similar in the sense that they impose high impacts of sustainability because they are going to overwhelm large land mass, displace millions of people and have high ecological impact. Furthermore, the two dams have had so much negative impact, which has made them receive national and international attention as well as opposition. Despite the fact that the two dams received immense opposition and non-cooperation from international financial institution such as the World Bank, the respective countries generated and used their own resources to finance the construction of these dams (Sen). It is also important to note that both India and China are reported to have a very fast growing economy. The two countries have also hit the headlines with being the producers of dam-induced displacement. The dam-induced displacements were responsible for the conflicts, which emerged between the local communities and the government. Besides, the construction of each of the dams was initiated and developed by respective local universities. The construction of the China Three Gorges Dam was supported by China Three Gorges University (CTGU), which is made up of Hubei Three Gorges University and University of Hydraulic & Electric Engineering. The university is mostly involved with energy and the production of electricity. The university has laboratories, which have been used to carry out research on different energy projects like China Three Gorges Dam, Project 211, Qingjiang Geheyan Water Power Plant, and Gezhou Dam. Similarly, Indian Delhi University was instrumental in the research on the assessment of the Indian Delhi dam on the local ecosystem. Although the Indian Delhi University was not as actively involved in research of the dam in the laboratories, more research about the dam was carried out in this university. Benefits, Costs, and conflicts While there are associated with the construction of each of the two projects, various cases of costs and conflicts is part of the two dam projects. These costs and conflicts have four main causes. The causes include technical, financial, political, and economic factors. According to Khagram (pg.8), these factors have made big and otherwise useful dams less attractive. Other than solving the major problem that was targeted by the project, they fail to solve the core problem, but instead contribute to other problems. Khagram asserts that such factors make such dams fail to “tell the whole story” (pg.9). The political economy of development is largely influence by allied grassroots groups, nongovernmental organizations, as well as social movements. In the case of the two dams, some stakeholders are so much concerned about the two respective dams in the two countries. This concern is with regard to construction of the dams and they had some form of concurrent views. Some of the key stakeholders are the farmers who were going to be forcefully evicted. In China, for example the estimated hectares that were going to be wasted totaled about 23,000ha of agriculture land (Veeck, Ponnell, Smith, and Huang). The next stakeholders that were concerned with the dams’ construction were the human right organization. They were concerned about the construction process and the forced resettlement of the people. The other people who were concerned about the construction of the dam in these countries were the environmentalist; this is because the construction of the dam was going to have many impacts (Veeck 64). In China for example, the environmentalists and the archeologists were also interested in the construction of Delhi and THREE GORGE DAM in India and China respectively. The other common theme is the similarity in the conflict arena. The two countries conflict because of the construction was the socio-cultural and environmental issues. The social-cultural issues include forced resettlement, overpowering of dissenting views, health concern, and loss of archeological spots. The environmental issues include; endangered species, erosion problems, and clean energy (Wu et al. 247). The main conflict between the projects in the Delhi dam and the local residents was caused by human displacement and lack of proper manner or policy to advocate for the resettlement of the local people. The people of Delhi joined the movement that was initially formed to protest against the construction of the dam. The movement was known as the Narmada Dharangrasta Samiti. These movement wanted better policies for settlement and compensation of the people that were going to be displaced. The people did not oppose the construction of the dam rather they were concerned about the settlement. More people had been displaced and property of immense value destroyed an others damaged. This was a blow to the economic development of the local residents (Aldrich 61). They were left with bank loans to repay when they did not have any access to finance as their properties were destroyed. The construction of the dam also shunned the locals for regional development as investors felt theta the value of their properties had gone down significantly because of massive flooding the areas would experience, as such, no investor would risk their funds in the area. The Indian Delhi Dam had more conflicts than the Chinese Three Gorges Dam because the Indian government became corrupt about the management of the dam and the conflict the project was eliciting. The dam failed after causing destruction to 16 residences, damaged 70, and released 180, 000 cubic yards of sediments to the downstream, which led to massive flooding. The political system in India was so corrupt and unfair (Aldrich). The government refused to accept that the local people are there by right and resettling only those who have title deeds. Corruption also manifests itself when the local government issues the more productive land to the wealthier families and the less productive land to the poor families. This is why the conflict of construction of large dams was all about the struggle against unsustainable development. “the anti-dam movement spearheaded by the NBA played a major role in drawing attention to the problems associated with large dams, and giving a voice to the ousters” (Singh, 67). The Three Gorges Dam Project evoked a lot of controversy, as there were massive conflicts between the different groups. The conflict was based on the problems of flooding the dam would create when the waters of the reservoir rise up to 290 meters (Chetham 29). The reservoir would flood to 12,000 acres of field, gorges, 800 historical sites, and more than 150 towns. Although the dam would generate china 10% energy needed to stop bringing coal, it would cause forced displacement of more than a million people which did not faced a lot of conflicts with different stakeholder like farmers, local settler, environmentalists, archeologists and human rights activists. The local community was not as pleased with the construction of the Three Gorges Dam as the local government. Farmers especially did into support the construction of the dam because the reservoir generated by the Dam would cause flooding to more than 23,000 hectares of agricultural land (Veeck, Ponnell, Smith, and Huang). Although they were being compensated with other fields, those fields were five times less productive and many farmers were forced to stop farming (Chetham). Human rights organizations were also opposed to the construction of the dam because of the rigid conditions of the laws the Chinese government has taken towards dissenting views. They are also opposed to the forced displacement of very many people, which were over a million. The human rights activists were opposed to the use of prisoners who would be used as laborers for the construction of the dam (Chetham 72). Another group opposed to the construction of the dam was the environmentalists were opposed to the construction of the dam because of the environmental degradation the dam was threatening to cause. They were also opposed to the loss of the endangered species in the site such as Siberian Crane, Yangtze Dolphin, and Chinese Sturgeon (Gupta and Asher 81). The archeologists felt that the dam would flood very important cultural and historical sites such as the ghost city of Fengdu. The Three Gorge dam had much benefit to the economy of China such as flood control, power generation, navigation among others however; it was bound to cause enormous environmental hazards. Experts indicated that the construction would increase the probability of an occurrence of earthquake, mudslide, and water pollution. Another concern was the destruction of very key archeological site that were estimated to be over 5000 years old, hundreds of sacred ancient monuments, and important temple would be a great loss of human civilization. Environmental activism was extremely low in China and any protest did not occur as compared to India, which started early. The activism in China started around 1980s. This is the reason as to why there were no traditional forms of social protest and movements. This scenario gave no platform for any active protest over the construction of Three Gorge dam. The only area where the protest was being voiced was among scientists, scholars, and civil right activists. The most eminent person to be known to have a protest against this dam is the Chinese journalist known as Dai Qing where in her book ‘Yangtze! Yangtze!’ questions human security challenges of the Three Gorge dam. The government banned her book and she was later arrested in her protest at Tiananmen Square. The crackdown in Tiananmen silenced the Chinese society and there was no major civic engagement until mid 1990s. Three Gorge dam became a controversial topic among the Chinese government in 1992 because of its enormous size, large human displacement, potential environmental threats and the huge costs that are associated with the construction (McCully 91). Another difference that emerges from the China is the fact that the Chinese government was so authoritarian, there was a proposal to reduce the height of the wall of the dam from 185m to the original 156m, but nothing was taken to consideration. The Chinese scholars and environmentalists tried to warn the Chinese government on the environmental hazards that will occur due to the construction of the dam, and still the government could hear none. The conflict of the construction of three gorge dam went ahead to attract the attention of the global civic society. The campaign was carried through international media and activist, Probe international, a Canadian NGO, monitored the project since its planning phase and even launch their website “The Three Gorges probe “for publishing their analysis and reports. International Rivers Network (IRN) also ran campaigns throughout the USA criticizing the project. Human Rights in China in collaboration with the IRN pointed out the severe problem I regard to Three Gorge dam resettlement project. March 2003 they appealed to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, protesting China’s violation of human rights in dam construction process (Lin). The endless effort of the two organizations succeeded to convince severely funders to withdraw their aid; this was a very significant step against ant three gorge dam campaigns. The political constraint made it difficult to mobilize the affected people in the beginning of construction of Three Gorge dam unlike the movement that was in India to protest against the construction of Delhi dam. There are many similarities and differences between among the anti-dam protest mobilization in India and China. This proves the case of Khagram who holds that the construction of big dams has declined mainly due to transnational movements, which have allied with activities willing to challenge such projects based on global norms. Aldrich further supports the same idea by saying that individuals who are connected to the non-local organizations gain some unusual strength, but his case is on disaster management. From the research it occurs that people from a democratic regime enjoys a favorable condition when it comes to protests mobilization as compared to people from an authoritarian regime. Typically, people of India took part in decision-making and the decision was to oppose the construction of the dam. The people of China on the other hand had no chance to give their opinion and due to the authoritarian government structure that was in place. This was another major reason why conflict was more intensified in India that in China. Protest against construction of the Delhi dam was so rampant in India and this can be said to have a positive effect in a manner that the economy was subjected to sustain itself (Aldrich). Conclusion Both China Three Gorges Dam and India Delhi Dam have revolved under heavy controversies because of conflicts between the government and the local communities. The attitude of the local population towards the development of the two dams was different from the government. The Indian and the Chinese governments supported the construction of the Delhi dam and the Three Gorges Dam respectively. The dams are constructed with the view of helping the country deal with the problems of flooding and provide clean energy (Kennedy). Prevention of flooding and clean energy was the core reason why the two governments supported the dams. However, the local communities were opposed to the construction of the dams because millions of people were displaced especially the farmers who depended on the fields for a living. Those who remained had to give up farming. On the quest to stop flooding, the Three Gorges Dam would cause flooding to more than12, 000 acres of field, as the water in the aquifer would rise up to 290 meters. The Delhi dam caused massive destruction of residents and acres of land, but it never solved the flooding problems in India. Work cited Aldrich, Daniel P. Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2012 . Print. Gleick, Peter H. Three Gorges Dam Project, Yangtze River, China. Water Brief 3, 2009. [Pdf] Available at: http://www.worldwater.org/data20082009/WB03.pdf Jenkins, J. Craig. Social Movements, Political Representation, and the State: An Agenda and Comparative Framework. In: Jenkins, J. Craig and Klandermans, Bert, eds. The Politics of Social Protest: Comparative Perspectives on States and Social Movements. London: UCL Press, 1995. Ch.2, 1995. Li, R. About-face on impacts of huge dam projects; Official now denies ecological risk. South China Morning Post, p.6. Retrieved from Lexis-Nexis database, 2007. Lin, Teh-Chang. Environmental NGOs and the Anti-Dam Movements in China: A Social Movement with Chinese Characterisitcs. Issues and Studies, 43(4), pp. 149-184, 2007. McCully, Patrick. Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams. London: Zed Books, 2001. Meyer, S. and Staggenborg, Suzanne, May 1996. Movements, Countermovement’s, and the Structure of Political Opportunity. The American Journal of Sociology, 101(6), pp. 1628- 1660, 1996. Sen, Amartya. Quality of Life: India vs. China. The New York Review of Books. [Online] 2011. Available at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/may/12/quality-life-india- vschina/ Singh, Satyajit, Introduction. In: DREZE, JEAN, SAMSON, MEERA and SINGH, SATYAJIT, eds. THE DAM AND THE NATION: Displacement and Resettlement in the Narmada Valley. Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-25, 1997. Veeck, G. et al. China is Geography Globalization and the Dynamics of Political, Economic, and Social Change. New York: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers Inc, 2007. Wu J., Huang, J., Han, X., Gao, X., Je, F., Jiang, M., Jiang, Z., Primack, R. and Shen, Z. The Three Gorges Dam: An Ecological Perspectives. Ecological Society of America, 2(5), 241-248. Retrieved September 20, 2008 from JSTOR database, 2004. Read More