The World Bank and India

MANIBELI DECLARATION

• The World Bank is the greatest single source of funds for large dam construction, having provided more than US $50 billion (1992) for construction of more than 500 large dams in 92 countries.
• Since 1948, the World Bank has financed large dam projects which have forcibly displaced 10 million people from their homes and lands.
• The World Bank is planning to fund over the next three years 18 large dam projects which will forcibly displace another 4,50,000 people, without any credible guarantee that its policy on resettlement will be enforced.
• The environmental and social costs of World Bank-funded large dams, in terms of people forced from their homes, destruction of forests and fisheries, and spread of waterborne diseases, have fallen disproportionately on women, indigenous communities, tribal peoples and the poorest and most marginalized sectors of the population.
• The World Bank has prioritized lending for large dams which provide electricity to trans-national industry and to urban elites, and irrigation water supply for export-oriented agriculture, neglecting the most pressing needs of the rural poor and other disadvantaged groups.
• Conclude that the World Bank has to date been unwilling and incapable of reforming its lending for large dams; and call for an immediate moratorium on all World Bank funding of large dams including all projects currently in the funding pipeline, until—
• The World Bank establishes a fund to provide reparations to the people forcibly evicted from their homes and lands by Bank-funded large dams without adequate compensation and rehabilitation.
• The World Bank commissions, reviews and implements the recommendations of an independent comprehensive review of all Bank-funded large dam projects to establish the actual costs, and the actually realized benefits of each project.
• The World Bank cancels the debt owed for large dam projects in which the economic, environmental and social costs are found to outweigh the realized benefits.
• The World Bank develops new project appraisal techniques to assure that estimates of the costs and benefits, risks and varied impact of large dams under consideration are rigorously based on the actual experience with the Bank funded large dams.
• The Bank makes all information on large dam projects, including past and current projects and projects under consideration, freely available to the public.
• The World Bank requires independent monitoring and evaluation of preparation of large dam projects and systematic monitoring and auditing of project implementation, by persons outside the Bank and with no stake in the outcome of the project.
• A formal decision is taken by the Bank to permanently halt all funding of large dams through the International Development Association (IDA), funding which is inconsistent with the IDA-10 donor's agreement.

—Signed by Hundreds of Organizations in the World

Some Basic World Bank Documents

• The Monthly Operational Summary (MOS) contains information on all projects. The information for each project includes the name of borrower country, the agency implementing the project, the amount of money in the loan, a description of the project, consulting services needed, and the stage of the project in the project cycle. The MOS can be obtained by NGOs from the following address: The World Bank, International Economic Relations Division, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA.
• The Sourcebook is a three-volume book which describes the Bank's environment policy in detail, discussing, among other things, the assessment process, social and cultural issues and community involvement in environmental review, and guidelines for projects in various sectors. NGOs may request the Source book from : The Bank Information Center, 2025 I Street, NW, Room 522, Washington, DC 20006, USA.
• Staff Appraisal Reports (SARs) summarize a project's environment and social impacts and contain the official record of public participation.
• Many of Bank's documents are available at the Bank's Resident Representative Office in India.

Address: The World Bank, 69-70, Lodi Estate, New Delhi-110003

Phone : 4617241, 4619497; Fax : 4619393