ABSTRACT
Large-scale and comprehensive development of river basins is a child of colonialism. Massive irrigation development in India, Egypt and Sudan by the British, emulated by the French or the Dutch, heralded a new area of the colonial economy. Large swathes of arid lands were brought under cultivation for the production of industrial crops such as cotton, sugarcane or rice. After gaining independence, national governments took over the colonial model in an attempt to deliver the promises of ‘development’ and foster economic growth in rural areas, and were influenced by the full basin development model of the Tennessee Valley Authority (Molle, 2006). The worldwide development of water regulation infrastructures and irrigated areas in the period of 1950 to 1980 achieved many benefits, including increased incomes, yields and production, and a global food sufficiency reflected until recent days in long-term declining grain prices (Molden et al, 2007). In the absence of opportunity costs for labour, such rural development projects had large multiplier effects and their economic justification was quite strong.
