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Mountains of Concrete
Dam Building in the Himalayas


for bigger picture click on this photo Monks demonstrate against big dams in Sikkim, North East India.

Download the full report

When you want a quick overview about the several hundred dam projects in the Himalayas for the next twenty years, you will find a lot of information in the report Mountains of Concrete - dam building in the Himalayas.

The report tells about the suffering of the people, most tribals, living at the river banks; about the risks for the people living down stream, when a dam collaps in this eartquack prone region; about the destruction of the forests, the funding problems, the structural underestimation of the costs and overestimation of the earnings.
The report also gives a picture of the resistance of villagers, the network of organisations and specialists and the local alternatives to produce electricity.


for bigger picture click on this photo Many big dams are build already in the Himalayas, many more are planned.



for bigger picture click on this photo Protest in Bangladesh, 2008.



for bigger picture click on this photo Village meeting in Nepal, 2007. Organising protest against a big dam.


Mountains of Concrete - dam building in the Himalayas; Shripad Dharmadhikary; International Rivers; Berkeley, USA, 2008.


Download the full report Mountains of Concrete (44 pages; pdf, 2900 KB).

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Photos from report Mountains of Concrete - Creative Commons