Victims Upstream and Down

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Abstract
Persons living in the planned reservoir areas of large dams constitute classic instances of involuntary relocatees, and the largest funding institution for these dams in the Third World, the World Bank, has elaborated guidelines for their resettlement. Guidelines are necessary but insufficient steps in confronting victimization from development actions, first, because they are often ignored, and second, because there are no guidelines to protect the often larger number of persons downstream from dams who experience environmental, economic, and political dislocations. The Senegal River Valley is a current case in which dam construction and water management policy will inflict hardships both upstream and downstream, but only upstream has there been any attempt to compensate people for their losses. A different management policy would contribute to mitigating many of the downstream hardships without causing losses in either hydropower or irrigation. Whether so enlightened a policy will be adopted remains problematic.

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