Cases / Protected area / relocation · Global · 1985–2018
World Bank-backed dams displaced people, and reviews found incomes often not restored
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Dams worldwide displaced an estimated 40 to 80 million people, according to the World Commission on Dams, and most did not regain their former livelihoods. The World Bank's own reviews found major gaps in restoring incomes, and downstream fishing income in Laos fell after the Nam Theun 2 dam.
What?
Dams displaced an estimated 40 to 80 million people worldwide, and the World Bank's own reviews found incomes were often not restored.
Where?
Global; India (Sardar Sarovar), Brazil (Itaparica, Sobradinho), China (Three Gorges) and Laos (Nam Theun 2)
When?
Sardar Sarovar loan 1985; Morse report 1992; Inspection Panel 1993; gate closure 2017; Nam Theun 2 field report 2018 Bretton Woods Project
Who?
Gained
- Government of India — Received a $450 million World Bank loan for the Sardar Sarovar dam in 1985; the remaining loan was cancelled in 1993 and India completed the dam itself Bretton Woods Project
Lost
- Resettled people at Sobradinho, Brazil — About 120,000 people were affected by the earlier Sobradinho dam, and half of them received no compensation
Harmed
- Downstream communities on the Xe Bang Fai river, Laos — Fishing income fell and shoreline erosion continued without compensation, per the 2018 field report Mekong Watch and International Rivers
Why?
Dam construction for power, irrigation and water storage; the sources reviewed do not explain each lender decision.
How?
Resettlement under World Bank policy, which requires avoiding displacement or restoring livelihoods; the sources say incomes were often not restored
6 of 6 questions answered from the record
What happened
The record, in order.
The World Commission on Dams reviewed about 1,000 dams in 79 countries in 2000 and reported that they had physically displaced 40 to 80 million people, most of whom did not regain their former livelihoods.
The World Bank's own 1994 review found major gaps in restoring the incomes of resettled people, and its Independent Evaluation Group estimated in 2010, from a sample, that more than one million people were affected at any one time.
The Bretton Woods Project reported that the 2017 gate closure at the Sardar Sarovar dam in India affected about 250,000 people in 245 villages, and that activists said 40,000 families had not been rehabilitated.
A 2018 independent field report on the Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos, cited by Mekong Watch and International Rivers, found falling fish catches and incomes, and downstream shoreline erosion that continued without compensation.
In court and with insurers
Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.
Lawsuits and rulings
No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.
Insurers
No insurer decision on record.
What we don't know
Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- None on record Not found: an official global count of people displaced by dams; the 2007 estimate of 15 million people a year by former World Bank sociologist Michael Cernea is an update, not an official statistic.
- None on record Not found: a source link for the Three Gorges figure of 1.13 million, or for the Sobradinho and Itaparica figures.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts— Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers
Communities and civil society
- Bretton Woods Project article on the Sardar Sarovar damBretton Woods Project · 2017-10-02
- Nam Theun 2 hydropower field report, February 2018Mekong Watch and International Rivers · 2018-06-19
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