Drowned Out

Last night, I left my comfortable life and ventured out into the cold night to watch a moving story about a group of people the Indian government would rather forget. It is the true story of one families stand against the destruction of their homes, land and lives.

The film is about one government’s bull-headed vision of making dam’s. It is based around the dam’s being built over the past 50 years on the great Narmada River. They are also being built elsewhere in India.

There has been very little thought made for what will happen to those people who are affected by them – losing their homes to the reservoir’s of water, and canals covering the country. It is not surprising that these homes are owned by poor people, whose only choices are to move to the slums in the city, relocate to barren resettlement sites with no drinking water or to stay put in their homelands and drown.

I was most moved by a woman living in the slums outside a city in India – she said she had no reason to live (her home was gone, she had no money, her life was extremely hard), yet she felt she couldn’t even die – which is what she would have liked to do. Her picture with the filmmaker is above – click on the picture to go to the spanner films website to learn more about the film.

I was left feeling somewhat depressed – if the powers that be can destroy peoples lives like this without major outcry from the world, what hope is there?