Development Strategies
Top Down or Bottom Up?
Top down development is where decisions about development are made by Governments or private companies. These tend to be big schemes and decisions are made by the national government. Local people who often live near the scheme do not get involved in the process.
Bottom up development is where experts work with local communities to identify their needs. The experts can then supply and assist with progress. The schemes tend to be smaller scale and local people are in control of improving their own lives.
TOP DOWN
Narmada River Scheme – The Sardar Sarovar Dam
This is already one of the world’s largest dams. When completed, it will provide water all year round to areas of India that suffer drought. The dam is multi purpose and provides 3.5 million litres of drinking water a day as well as more than 750 wind turbines worth of electricity through hydro electric power (HEP).
There are a series of canals which distribute water to other states in India. When complete these will help irrigate (provide water for) 1.8 million hectares of farmland in the driest parts of several states. This will save £20 billion worth of farm produce that would otherwise be lost due to drought.
The construction of the scheme has seen over 230 villages destroyed (as the land has been flooded to prepare for the dam), over 300,000 people forced out, good quality farmland and many religious and historic sites have been flooded. Very few of the surrounding villages can afford the electricity generated so therefore it is only the major cities that benefit. The area also has a history of earthquake activity and seismologists believe that the weight of large dams can trigger seismic activity.
BOTTOM UP
Cow Dung Biogas – Tumkur
Biogas has proven to be an excellent resource for the villages in Tumkur. The local people decided that all the cow dung from cattle in the village would be pooled together into a communal biogas plant. The dung ferments in brick/clay/concrete pits to produce methane which is then piped into homes.
The biogas results in smoke and ash free kitchens and the gas stoves reduce eye and lung problems (caused by other methods) within six months of being installed. Women and children don’t have to gather firewood, giving them more times for other things and now over 200 women are earning incomes for their families. The dung fermentation pits mean that it is no longer stored in homes and this destroys pathogens which cause diseases. Health has therefore increased drastically.
Across India, 4 million cow dung biogas plants have been built which has created 200,000 permanent jobs, mainly in rural areas. Cows are now kept in family compounds which prevent them from grazing in forests and destroying saplings (which prevents woodland from regenerating).
Issues that can arise include building too large a pit, which leads to ‘under feeding’ (not enough cow dung) and eventually failure to produce enough gas.
Cultural practices can also affect the decisions to use biogas, as using gas burners often means that the staple bread chapatti cannot be properly roasted and families may have to change their diet and potentially lose centuries of history.
These bottom up schemes also struggle to make a massive impact on poverty on the national scale.
This is another example of a bottom up scheme - it explains how a micro hydro scheme works.
