Abstract
Dam constructions and flow modifications lead a nation towards significant development. Other than expected positive outcomes, a dam can contribute to severe negative impacts on society and environment. Displacement and resettlement due to dams affect the communities adversely. Displacement affects males and females differently as each gender is assigned with specific roles that lead to different responses. Though, many large dam projects such as Mahaweli have been undertaken in Sri Lanka, gendered responses to resettlement stress has not been adequately documented. Therefore, this study attempted to analyse the responses to seven identified resettlement stress factors by each gender using twelve case studies from Deduru Oya reservoir project in Sri Lanka. The resettlement stress factors under consideration were landlessness, unemployment, homelessness, marginalization, food insecurity, loss of access to common properties and social disintegration. For the issues of landlessness, unemployment and homelessness, males take longer time to adapt since they tend to secure a permanent livelihood while females find immediate possible solutions for issues such as feeding children and caring for family. Even though both genders are marginalized within the new community, women are more affected due transfer of land ownership completely to men. The traditional reproductive gender roles that females have to play amidst the resettlement stress place tremendous pressure on them. No provisions have been made to meet females’ practical and strategic needs in the resettled environment. In addition, patriarchal way of land reallocation makes females marginalised within the family itself.
Highlights
Dam construction leads a nation towards a significant development and provides numerous and valuable benefits to mankind (World Commission on Dams (WCD), 2000; Acreman, 2000; Ledec and Quintero, 2003)
The forthcoming sections describe the above mentioned seven consequences or the stresses relate to displacement and resettlement in Deduru Oya reservoir project
Women look for quick solutions compared to men in finding opportunities for early adaptation. Both male and female are unable to manage with the consequences of displacement such as loss of access to common properties which are often not found in the resettled location
Summary
Dam construction leads a nation towards a significant development and provides numerous and valuable benefits to mankind (WCD, 2000; Acreman, 2000; Ledec and Quintero, 2003). Construction of large dams has been led to displacement of 40 to 80 million people worldwide, most of the time it has been done force fully (WCD, 2000; Caspary, 2007) This figure only presents the extent of displacement, without explaining the real social impacts, together with presence of huge variation from case to case and all of them are sensitive cases regarding humanity. The universal declaration of human rights (UN, 1948) accepts that everyone has the right to better living standards (adequate for the health and well-being), right to cultural life, right to freedom of movement and residence, right to not to be interfered with his or her privacy, right to not to be arbitrarily deprived of his or her property, right to social security right to free choice of employment as well as it accepts the family as an important social unit that everyone has These rights of displaced people are in question
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