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SHRIPAD DHARMADHIKARY

much water has flown down the rivers of this world and many attempts to stop the water from flowing have been frustrated by the growing anti-large dam movement since the now classic Social and Environmental Impact of Large Dams by Goldsmith and Hildyard was published in the mid '80s. Patrick McCully's book has come out as not only a worthy sequel but a very significant work in its own right.

Even after a decade of much publicised intense global struggles against large dams, understanding of the complex issues involved is limited except, possibly, on issues of rehabilitation and environmental impacts. This book does a remarkable job of documenting in detail all such issues, giving facts and figures from all over the world. The immense amount of data, documented in an eminently readable style, is probably the biggest strength of the book.

The book does a competent job of exploring, as the title suggests, the ecology and the politics of large dams, both of which have become equally important for anti-large dam movements. The book opens with a very interesting introduction to the history and spread of large dams, building a detailed picture of how they have irrevocably altered the landscape as well as the politics of the region.

Subsequent chapters cover the inevitable topics of rehabilitation and environmental impacts. However, the last few chapters are more interesting as they explore in detail the claimed benefits of large dams in power generation and irrigation, as also the technical failure of such dams. McCully documents in detail how flimsy the technical basis of such dams are. This includes problems like seismic impacts, geological problems, siltation and dam failures. He also lucidly explains how the vested interests push ahead the dams even though they know about these weaknesses. One of the sections, eloquently titled