The controversial damming of the Narmada river in central India goes on, even though the project has been plagued by escalating costs, corruption scandals and protests over human rights and environmental abuses.
Yet despite financial, social and environmental deficiencies, Defne Gonenc, PhD candidate in Political Science/International Relations, writes that the main beneficiaries are multinationals and large contractors, rather than the hundreds of ordinary Indians who need clean drinking water and access to the river for their livelihoods.