ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a factual account of the genesis of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Project; the World Bank's role—what it did and why; and a summary assessment of the Bank's experience with the project. In states like Gujarat, where the Narmada dam is being built, rainfall is barely enough for a single crop, even in good monsoon years. Most of the people of Gujarat are poor; indigenous, or tribal, people. The droughts in western India have occurred in the midst of the presence of a vast, unexploited water resource—the Narmada River. The Tribunal decided that about two-thirds of this water should be allocated to the state of Madhya Pradesh for future exploitation and development since the Narmada originates, and flows mostly, in that state. In 1980 the Government of India requested the World Bank's assistance with the first phase of the long-term Narmada basin development program, in the form of helping to finance the Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat.
