Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
LESSONS FROM JAPANESE EXPERIENCE IN
INVOLUNTARY RESETTLEMENT FOR
DAM CONSTRUCTION — CASE OF
NEW VILLAGE BUILDING
NARUHIKO TAKESADA
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo
Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
naruhiko@d02.itscom.net
Constructing dams, as one of measure approaches in water resources develop-
ment in developing countries, often involves number of households to be reset-
tled involuntarily and is nowadays severely criticized. In postwar Japan, there
were many cases of dam construction with involuntary resettlement. In this
study, involuntary resettlement of Ikawa Dam in Shizuoka Prefecture is exam-
ined as a case. Ikawa Dam, completed in 1957 in the Ohi River, was constructed
for the purpose of hydro power generation. The special approach of compen-
sation taken instead of monetary compensation for resettled 193 households
was “New Village Building.” Among several enabling conditions for “New Vil-
lage Building,” the role played by Shizuoka Prefecture government has been
focused on. Reviewing these experiences of Ikawa Dam Project will give us
valuable insights applicable to the current resettlement practice in developing
countries.
1. Introduction
Dams often submerge large areas, where people live, cultivate, or derive
necessary resources for their livelihoods, sometimes near a city or even
city itself, but usually in rural villages. Persons affected must leave their
ancestral lands with compensation and need to start new lives elsewhere
either near the original place or far away. In the World Bank estimate in
1994, every 300 large dams which enter into construction in every year
result more than four million people displaced. Involuntary resettlement
has been and is being reiterated in the world wide scale, both in developed
and developing countries.
1
This “involuntary resettlement” used to be perceived as necessary sac-
rifice or side-effect for national development or economic growth. However,
the risk of impoverishment of these resettled people is widely accepted
nowadays. After Narmada development controversy in India in the end
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