Dam Fever and the Diaspora

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2022

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New Generation Thinker Majed Akhter explores how large dam projects continue to form reservoirs of hope for a sustainable future. Despite their known drawbacks, our love affair with dams has not abated – across the world more than 3,500 dams are in various stages of construction. In Pakistan this has become entwined with nationalism, both inside the community and in the diaspora - but what are the dangers of this “dam fever” ? This Essay traces the history of river development in the region, from the early twentieth century “canal colonies” in Punjab, to Cold War mega-projects, to the contemporary drive to build large new dams. Previously an engineer and a resource economist, Majed Akhter now lectures in geography at King’s College London. you can hear him discussing the politics of rivers in a Free Thinking episode called Rivers and geopolitics https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00051hb

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten early career academics each year to turn their research into radio.

Producer: Alex Mansfield

Transcript

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0:00.0	Can I just say?
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0:05.6	So nice.
0:06.5	There are loads more like it on BBC sounds.
0:08.8	Different paces, different heights.
0:10.6	The roof is buckling.
0:11.9	Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.
0:14.2	It's right foot goes for goal.
0:16.7	And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.
0:21.7	The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.
0:25.2	And she's had to live with that.
0:26.8	So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.
0:29.7	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.7	Sort of expecting that every week now.
0:35.8	BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.
0:39.6	Hello, I'm Shahed Abari, and welcome to this episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast,
0:44.8	in which we'll hear an essay from one of the 2019 New Generation thinkers.
0:49.9	They are early career academics who work with BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council on a scheme that turns their research into radio.
0:59.0	I was one of the first ten people, chosen for the scheme, nearly ten years ago.
1:04.0	In this year's essays, you'll hear topics ranging from satire in Egypt, anti-Semitism, the disappearing skills of Britain's textile industry,
1:13.3	Renaissance art, racism in techno music, and rethinking facial disfigurement.
	...

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