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We need large Dams and we are not going to apologize for it.Those in the developed countries who already have everything put stumbling blocks in our way from the comfort of their electrically lit and air conditioned homes…. The third world is not ready to give up the construction of large dams, as much for water supply and flood control as for power…Hydropower is the cheapest and cleanest source of energy, but environmentalists do not appreciate that. Certainly large dam projects create local resettlement problems, but this should be a matter of local, not international concern.”
Former president Theo van Robbroek of the InternationalCommission on Large Dams ICOLD“
To persuade Third World governments to abandon plans to build water development schemes, to which they are often totally committed, is very difficult. Nevertheless, every effort must be made by local environmental groups to do so. If necessary they should resort to non-violent direct actions at the dam site. We in the west can best prevent the construction of further dams by systematically lobbying donor governments, development banks and international agencies, without whose financial help such scheme could not be built. Indeed we call on those organizations herewith to cut off funds from all large-scale water development schemes.”
Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard, editors of The Ecologist.Source: “Dams and development: transnational struggles for water and power”.Sanjeev Khagram, 2004, Ithaca, Cornell University Press[2].
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