DAMS AS AID A political anatomy of Nordic development thinking 3

DAMS AS AID Dams have serious environmental and social impacts. Public opposition to dams exists in virtually every country where there is the democratic space to express dissent. Western donors face an intractable dilemma when they give dams as aid. This book explores how aid agencies handle this dilemma. Dams as Aid is a critical exploration of dams which sheds light on the wider issues of the political economy of aid, the environment debate and North—South links. Focusing particularly on Nordic (Swedish and Norwegian) aid for hydro dams in the Developing World, it describes why dams are no longer built in the region, the mechanism through which Northern aid money subsidizes the dams industry to find new markets in the South, and the struggles and politics surrounding dam projects, concentrating on three Nordic-financed dam projects in Chile, Tanzania and Laos. This book looks at power dams from the point of view of their social and environmental impacts, and how these impacts are reviewed by Nordic donors. The Nordic focus highlights patterns in the aid-financing of hydro-power projects linking donors, consultants and dam-building firms that exist with other multilateral projects. While the pattern is usually obscured by a bewildering number of countries, companies and institutions, many of which are highly secretive, the Nordic focus in this book provides the opportunity to observe the process in a clearer, more transparent form. It traces the direct connections between the end of the dams era in the North and the export of the technology to the South, via aid. Through detailed analysis of dams/ aid case studies, the book situates case studies in a broad comparative and theoretical perspective. Contributors: Øystein Dalland, Lars Lövgren, Claude Mung’ong’o, Gráinne Ryder, Juan Pablo Orrego Silva, Maria Vedin. Ann Danaiya Usher has covered forest and water politics and North—South questions as a journalist since 1987. In Bangkok she worked as a staff writer on the Thai daily newspaper, The Nation. Moving to Stockholm in 1993 she has investigated the environmental impacts of Nordic aid projects while working for the Swedish environmental magazine Sveriges Natur, and then as a correspondent for the Oslo-based journal Development Today. Dams As Aid brings together key issues in the aid/environment/development debate. Through her examination of dams, Usher sheds light on wider issues of the political economy of aid. Detailed analysis of dams and aid case studies are included, particularly on Nordic dams which provide most graphic illustrations, and these detailed case studies are located within a broad comparative and theoretical perspective. Dams As Aid brings together key issues in the aid/environment/development debate. Through her examination of dams, Usher sheds light on wider issues of the political economy of aid. With detailed comparative case studies.