March 14th is the International Day of Struggles Against Dams, For Rivers, For Water, and For Life. In solidarity with this struggle, we recommend the article "The impact of dams and resettlement on women's lives," which provides very concrete examples of how hydroelectric projects in Malaysia impact the lives of Indigenous peoples, especially women.
March 14th is the International Day of Struggles Against Dams, For Rivers, For Water, and For Life, and in solidarity with this struggle, we recommend the article "The impact of dams and resettlement on women's lives", which provides very concrete examples of how hydroelectric projects in Malaysia impact the lives of indigenous peoples, especially women. Although written in 2004 – when, for example, the aforementioned Kelau Hydroelectric Plant, completed in 2015, was still a project – the text is extremely relevant today. Among the impacts mentioned in the article: women receive the least compensation because they have less access to titled land compared to men; they suffer the greatest impacts after forced resettlement due to a dam project: they have to walk longer distances to gather fruit in the forests, fish in the rivers, or fetch water; activities that were previously done as a couple, such as hunting, become much more burdensome, and women end up staying at home, their social role restricted to the "gender functions" of urban society (such as caring for the house and children only); problems related to poor nutrition and stress caused by being uprooted from their homes and all that this implies also affected women more. With numerous examples, the article presents these impacts, which can be seen in many other communities affected by dams and which, as the text itself emphasizes, is "the price paid for 'development'." It's definitely worth the read! The Impact of Dams and Resettlement on Women's Lives