Background data was collected through a comprehensive review of English and Arabic-language academic literature, policy and activist documents, and media articles. Conducted from October 2013 to January 2014, topics reviewed included: a) issues related to the Merowe Dam itself (construction, technical facts (planned and actual electricity production, management regime, etc.); b) international norms relevant to dams (e.g. from the World Commission on Dams, emerging ‘good dams’ guidelines, international law); c) dam activism (lessons learned in particular from Southeast Asia and Latin America); and d) justice, both theory (social, environmental), and local traditions (i.e. Islamic, Sudanese, Nubian). This forms the basis of Section 3 of this report. Background data also relied on the team members’ insight on the project from previous anthropological and archaeological research. Empirical evidence was collected through questionnaires (dataset 851871) and interviews. Semi-structured interviews conducted by Azza Dirar and Mark Zeitoun loosely following the structure of a) recollection of events; b) thoughts on justice; and c) relevance of external actors and norms. At least 17 groups or individuals were interviewed in Khartoum or in the relocated or original villages, and consisted of school teachers, farmers, businessmen, women, activists, former water ministry officials, academics, students, and engineers Semi-structured and group interviews were also collected during a workshop held in Khartoum on 6 March 2014. The workshop brought together roughly fifty academics and people affected by the dam The opinions, thoughts and knowledge of all of these were sought following a presentation by the research team of the preliminary results. Roughly fifteen people took the opportunity, including activists, and otherwise non-affected historians, biologists, archaeologists, etc. The research responds to the emergence of global norms intended to reconcile natural resource management with poverty alleviation. The norms possess the potential to transform development practice, so long as they effectively support poor people’s rights to natural resources and sustainable livelihoods. This research examines the effects of global norms on poverty alleviation through explorations of forests and water. The research focuses on the cross-scale relationships between local environmental struggles, higher-level mobilizations for environmental justice and global norms through the lens of environmental justice. Struggles over justice are an integral element of environmental politics across scales, connecting local struggles to mobilisations at (inter)national levels as well as the conceptions informing global norms - and causing frictions between them. The research proceeds by way of four comparative case studies from Nepal, Sudan and Uganda. In Nepal, it analyses indigenous people’s successful mobilisation and resistance to hydropower projects as well as their participation in a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus (REDD+) pilot project. In Sudan, the Merowe hydro-electric dam exemplifies a case where local people have been dispossessed from land despite support from exiled community members and international activists. In Uganda, an afforestation project has not led to any significant mobilisation despite the presence of significant injustices.
Semi-structured interviews and group interviews. Questionnaire data are available as separate dataset via Related resources.
