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dam-l (Fwd) Urgent Action Alert from Bhopal
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 14:22:40 -0800
From: Eklavya <eklavya@bom3.vsnl.net.in> (by way of patrick@irn.org (Patrick
McCully))
Subject: Urgent Action Alert from Bhopal
To: irn-narmada@igc.apc.org
Action Alert Action Alert Action Alert Action Alert Action Alert
Action
Alert Action Alert Action Alert Action Alert Action Alert Action Alert
Action Alert Action Alert
Indefinite Fast At Bhopal Enters 7th Day : No Meaningful
Response From
State Government : People Determined to Fight Till the End
The indefinite fast by the people of the Narmada Valley entered the
seventh day today even as the discussions with the Chief Minister
held on
15.4.99 ended without any meaningful assurances by the
Government. The
people have decided to intensify the dharna on the struggle in
anticipation of long drawn out struggle.
It may be recollected that the Narmada Bachao Andolan had launched an
indefinite program of dharna from 7 April 1999 at Bhopal, focusing on the
issues raised by the large dams under construction in the Valley. The
Narmada Valley Development Project (NVDP) consists of 30 large dams, 135
medium and over 3000 small dams to be built on the Narmada and its
tributaries. All except one (Sardar Sarovar ) are in Madhya Pradesh. Over
500 people - affected by the large dams like Maheshwar, Lower Goi, Upper
Veda, Maan, Bargi, Sardar Sarovar, Narmada Sagar etc. have been sitting
on an indefinite dharna at Roshanpura in Bhopal. Getting no response from
the State to the long pending demands, while the work proceeds on the dam
leading to large scale displacement and destruction in the Valley, the
people decided to intensify the agitation and seven people have started an
indefinite fast from 12 April 1999. These are: Gopibai Patidar, Village
Pathrad, Resham bai Village Behgaon, Gitabai Village Nagawa, Reshambai
Village Bhatyan, Daulat bhai Village Behgaon (all from Mahehswar dam
area), Barsingh Barela Village Sonud (Veda Dam area) and NBA activist
Chitaroopa Palit.
The demands of the people are simple : stop the massive ecologcal
destruction and social disruption in the Valley which is being carried out
under the name of development, and implement the alternatives. The
Government of M.P. itself had constituted a Task Force early last year to
review the Narmada Valley Projects and prepare a framework of alternatives
for the development of water and energy resources of the valley. The Task
Force submitted two reports - one overall report in January 1999 and
another separate report on Maheshwar Project in November 1998. The reports
clearly acknowledge the grave situation of the displacement and recommend
a completely different and alternative approach of the development of the
water and energy resources in the Valley. They also explicitly recommended
that no projects should be carried out in which the rehabilitation and
environmental protection cannot be ensured. The situation today is that
none of the projects in the Valley have been able to ensure even some
semblance of rehabilitation of the affected people, and thousands of
people are likely to be affected in this monsoon without any
rehabilitation.
Against this background, the NBA demanded that the State Government
follow the recommendations of the Task Force and suspend all the
projects, carry out comprehensive reviews of the same and take up the
implementations of the alternatives as recommended by the Task Force. A
meeting was held on 14 January 1999 with the Chief Minister, but while he
agreed to take up the alternatives in the case of some of the new projects
like Veda and Goi, he refused to accept the recommendation of the Task
Force to carry out a economic viability review of the Mahehwar project.
After waiting for almost three months (because of, among other things,
the Sardar Sarovar case in the Court) with a series of smaller
demonstrations in the meanwhile, the people realised that the Government
was not willing to implement the recommendations of its own Task Force and
there was no recourse left except for launching an indefinite agitation.
This was becoming even more necessary as thousands of people in Maan,
Jobat, Sardar Sarovar and Narmada Sagar areas are likely to face
submergence losing lands, houses and property - and may be even lives to
the waters rising behind the dams in this very monsoon, even as
construction continues on these. With all these factor in mind the
indefinite agitation was launched from 7 April 1999.
On 15.4.99, the Chief Minister of M.P. called the NBA for discussions, but
refused to concede the major demands saying that the dams in Narmada
Valley are in an advanced state and now nothing can be done.
With this, the people have decided to intensify their agitation and
continue the fight. It is imperative that the struggle of the people is
supported by concerned citizens, organisations, eminent people all over
the country. The people of the Valley appeal to you to support and
participate in this critical phase of the struggle. In particular, you can
help by the following.
Participate in the Struggle by visiting the dharna at Bhopal and
expressing your solidarity in person
Write letters of protest to the Chief Minister of M.P. calling on him to
accept the logical demands of the people of the Narmada Valley that the
work on the projects should be immediately stopped, the projects reviewed
comprehensively and the alternatives implemented. The recommendations of
the Task Force constituted by his own Government should be implemented. It
has been decided that organisations all over M.P. will on 20 April hold
demonstrations at Taluka / District places and give statements of support
/ protest letter to CM through the local administration. You can either
do the same in your area, or write letters to the CM on the same date to
coincide with this. Disseminate the information about the dharna, fast and
the struggle to other organisations, media, eminent people Collect
signatures in large numbers and issue statements / protest letters to the
CM, and give this in the media also Talk to eminent people in your area
and request them to issue public statements and to write to Digvijay
Singh.
Important Documents
The following important documents are available and if you do not have
them, we can send them to you.
1. Report of the Task Force on Maheshwar Project
2. Report of the Task Fore - Overall
3. Report of the Evaluation Mission of the Ministry of Environment on
Narmada Sagar 4.phlI 5gI ivS9apn, dUsrI punvaRs (Pahli Thagi Visthapan,
Doosari Punarvas - collection of articles realted to recent Supreme Court
Order in SSP case, Hindi Booklet) 5. Detailed Presentations to the Task
Force on various dams, alterantives by NBA, other Experts (Maan, Goi, NSP,
Mahehswar)
Important Addresses /Contacts
1. NBA Contacts in Bhopal
Dharna at Roshanpura Naka, Narmada. New Market, Bhopal. Phone (Nearby STD
PCO, Someone can be called for the Dharna ) 0755-570 568 Other Contacts :
c/o Eklavya Phone & Fax : 0755-56 33 80 c/o Ekta Parishad 0755-54 38 00
2. Digvijay Singh, Chief Minister, Shyamala Hills, Bhopal.
Phone : 0755-540 500 /503/504
Fax : 0755 - 540 501
Brief Notes On Each Of The Dams
1. Narmada Sagar Project : The biggest and most destructive project in the
Valley. Its submergence area is over 90,000 ha. 40,000 ha of pristine
forest will be submerged in this project. It is supposed to irrigate
125,000 ha of land - as against the submergence of 90,000! In this 125,000
also, it is estimated that over 40% would be ultimately affected by
waterlogging and salinisation. It is also to have an installed capacity of
1000 MW, however, the firm power generation in the final stages is
supposed to be only about 118 MW. The amount of energy produced as
electricity will be lesser than the energy being produced today (in form
of biomass) by only the forests which will be submerged in the project !
It is significant that the project is close to Pandhana which has over the
last few months been subjected to over 2000 seismic shocks. Scientists
have predicted that the area could be subjected to a massive earthquake in
the enar future.
There is virtually no rehabilitation process, and the Government has
taken recourse to blatant and wide spread use of cash compensation
instead of "land-for-land". In this monsoon itself, it is expected that
about 39 villages will be affected by submegence - most of the people
without any resettlement whatsoever.
The Task Force has recommended that the project should be reviewed.
2. Mahehswar Project : This is a 400 MW, Rs. 1760 crore hydel power
project. This is India's first privatised power project - being promoted
by the textile company S.Kumars, other share holders being the German
companies Bayernwerk, VEW Energie and Siemens. Equipment is being supplied
by ABB and Siemens. The project is getting a huge loan from German bank
Hypovereinsbank. The German Government was to extend guarantees to the
project.
However, due to the intense campaign, the social and environment impacts
of the project, including the total lack of any planning for
rehabilitation and not a single inch of land being available for the same
has been exposed. As a result, German Government has decided not to give
the guarantees, and the German companies have withdrawn from the project.
(Both these decisions are not made public by the respective agencies.
Today, we have this information from "reliable sources".)
While there is no possibility of the rehabilitation of affected, the
power from the project itself is expected to be prohibitively expensive.
Of course, with a very one sided Power Purchase Agreement signed with the
company, the M.P. Government has virtually agreed to purchase all the
power produced at the very high rate Rs. 5-8 per unit, 16% assured rate
of return to the company - with all the risks being transferred to the
Government and all profits being taken by the company.
The Task Force recommended that the whole economic / financial cost
benefit of the project needs to be re-examined, and that the feasibility
of the rehabilitation would need to be proved. The Government refuses to
implement this recommendation. In the meeting with NBA of 15.4.99, the
C.M. said that the Maheshwar Project is now in an "advanced stage". This
is laughable, as hardly any work has been done on this project, and indeed
is the least advanced of all the ongoing projects in the Valley.
Latest information indicates that the cost of the project has gone up by
50% and hence the power will be even costlier.
Independent experts have given a series of alternative for this project
that are cheaper, with far less social and environmental impacts and much
higher local employment potential.
3. Maan Project : The project is on the tributary of Narmada called
Maan. The project has been under construction and the affected area is
largely tribal. Some years ago, the tribals, being kept in dark about the
land for land policy of rehabilitation were given cash compensation and
were declared "resettled". These families are now demanding their rights
now - but are expected to be affected by submergence this year, and have
nowhere to go.
Large portions of the command area are lands which are not irrigable at
all, but were included in the command just to show higher benefits. On the
other hand, as the project has been in planning for 20 years, the ground
reality in the proposed command area has totally changed. Over 54% of the
command area is now already irrigated by the efforts of the people. Now,
the remaining area can easily be irrigated through alternatives.
4. Jobat Project : Similar situation exist as in Maan project. In
Jobat, all the irrigable area has been irrigated by people using their own
resources.
5. Upper Veda & Lower Goi : These large dams are proposed to be built on
the tributaries Veda and Goi. In significant proportion of the command
areas of these projects also, irrigation development has taken place. For
example, this area is over 84 % in Goi project! These projects have not
started at all and hence it is necessary that they be abandoned and
alternatives be taken up.
(Details of Bargi, and Sardar Sarovar dam are not given as these are
mostly known).
Dianne Murray, Coordinator/Webmistress
Dam-Reservoir Working Group; Ottawa, Canada
Dam-Reservoir Impacts and Information Archive
http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/dams