Study title

Background data was collected through a comprehensive review of English and Arabic-language academic literature, policy and activist documents, and media articles. Conducted from October 2013 to January 2014, topics reviewed included: a) issues related to the Merowe Dam itself (construction, technical facts (planned and actual electricity production, management regime, etc.); b) international norms relevant to dams (e.g. from the World Commission on Dams, emerging ‘good dams’ guidelines, international law); c) dam activism (lessons learned in particular from Southeast Asia and Latin America); and d) justice, both theory (social, environmental), and local traditions (i.e. Islamic, Sudanese, Nubian). This forms the basis of Section 3 of this report. Background data also relied on the team members’ insight on the project from previous anthropological and archaeological research. Empirical evidence was collected through questionnaires (dataset 851871) and interviews. Semi-structured interviews conducted by Azza Dirar and Mark Zeitoun loosely following the structure of a) recollection of events; b) thoughts on justice; and c) relevance of external actors and norms. At least 17 groups or individuals were interviewed in Khartoum or in the relocated or original villages, and consisted of school teachers, farmers, businessmen, women, activists, former water ministry officials, academics, students, and engineers Semi-structured and group interviews were also collected during a workshop held in Khartoum on 6 March 2014. The workshop brought together roughly fifty academics and people affected by the dam The opinions, thoughts and knowledge of all of these were sought following a presentation by the research team of the preliminary results. Roughly fifteen people took the opportunity, including activists, and otherwise non-affected historians, biologists, archaeologists, etc. The research responds to the emergence of global norms intended to reconcile natural resource...