Photo retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com
“ArcelorMittal and Posco are leading $80 billion in planned spending in India that would vault the country ahead of Japan as the second-biggest steelmaker. Standing in the way are farmers and their water supply.
The farmers refuse to move from irrigated land in three states that hold more than half of India’s reserves of iron ore, a key material to make steel. That’s stymied Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ambitions to more than triple India’s steel capacity to 232 million metric tons.
“We’re not going to allow the government to take the land and water and give them to Posco,” said Prasanth Paikare, a spokesman for opposition group Posco Prathirodh Sangram Samiti that says it represents 25,000 farmers. “The government has promised us land at a new location but there is no good land available in the state now and there won’t be enough water for agriculture,” he said in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa state.
The farmers’ concern about water for crops has delayed plans by ArcelorMittal, Posco and at least five rivals to benefit from a steel market that has expanded more than 55 percent since 2005 as Indian imports of the metal tripled in the same period. Posco’s proposal to build a $12 billion steel plant in Orissa has stalled for five years as the South Korean company failed to persuade farmers to move.”
Read more: SF Gate
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