[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
DAM-L Sondu-Miriu presentation to WCD (fwd)
----- Forwarded message from Lori Pottinger -----
Return-path: <owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net>
Received: from DaVinci.NetVista.net (mjdomo@mail.netvista.net [206.170.46.10])
by lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id TAA11099
for <dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>; Tue, 27 Feb 2001 19:28:57 -0500 (EST)
Received: [(from mjdomo@localhost)
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) id f1S0PRx15462
for irn-safrica-list; Tue, 27 Feb 2001 16:25:27 -0800 (PST)
(envelope-from owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net)]
Received: [from [192.168.1.99] ([205.178.127.217])
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) with ESMTP id f1S0PNY15456
for <irn-safrica@netvista.net>; Tue, 27 Feb 2001 16:25:23 -0800 (PST)
(envelope-from lori@irn.org)]
X-Sender: lori@pop3.netvista.net
Message-ID: <p05010428b6c1f56f6777@[192.168.1.99]>
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 16:28:18 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: Lori Pottinger <lori@irn.org>
Subject: Sondu-Miriu presentation to WCD
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by DaVinci.NetVista.net id f1S0POY15457
Sender: owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net
Precedence: bulk
[ Charset ISO-8859-1 unsupported, converting... ]
PEOPLE AFFECTED BY THE SONDU-MIRIU HYDROPOWER PROJECT IN KENYA
PRESENTATION OF VIEWS ABOUT WCD REPORT
THIRD MEETING OF THE WCD FORUM
25-27 FEBRUARY: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
Presentation by Argwings Odera, Project Coordinator
Sondu-Miriu Advocacy Campaign
Everybody wants to live in a clean environment ? fresh air, flowers,
harmony, safe drinking water and electricity.
Everybody, anybody whose lives in a dam-affected area please by a
show of hands ? everybody, anybody who lives downstream near a river
dammed please by a show of hands.
(GESTURE)
It is not what you think. No! I am not trying to be rude or obscene.
I am just attempting to show you a finger broken because I was trying
to disseminate the kind of ideals in the WCD report.
Why was my finger broken?
Kenya police shot me in the shoulder, fired over 100 rounds of
ammunition at dam affected people, put me in jail for eight days ? I
am now out on bail, faced with the possibility of many years in jail
from trumped up charges like inciting the people affected by the
Sondu-Miriu Hydro Power Project to oppose the project. I am also
charged with trespass simply because I was told where the affected
people live is a prohibited area. I am also charged with resisting
arrest and publishing a false statement to Japan, a petition by the
dam affected people to Japan to review the project before continuing
funding it.
I had to sneak out of the country to be with you today to share in
your knowledge, ideas and also let you know of what we dam affected
people think of the WCD report and how it will influence our future
process.
My name is Argwings Odera. I am from Kenya. I live with people
terribly affected by the ongoing construction of the Sondu-Miriu
Hydropower project in Nyanza, Kisumu. This is a mega-project funded
by JBIC (Japan Bank for International Co-operation) and being
implemented by a Kenyan Government state corporation also known as
KENGEN (Kenya Electricity Generating Company).
How have we interpreted the WCD report?
WCD report and guidelines echoes our everyday desire. The desires to
live just like those benefiting from electricity. But what is this we
are hearing? Those major dam builders are quite predictably,
attempting to lynch the guidelines. We have heard such comments that
the report would make the process of building dams too costly and too
time consuming.
I am not here to defend the guidelines because I was not one of the
researchers or writers. I defend the report because the report aims
to protect my environment, save our river the Sondu-Miriu River,
defends my rights and that of my people. The report, I observe, also
defends the rights of people hooked onto the gridline and the rights
of dam builders to continue building dams ? cautiously.
What are dam builders telling us? That the only ways to implement the
WCD report is to stop energy sector development. How much money are
we willing to pay to live in a clean, harmonious environment?
How much money ? How much time do dam builders, dam brokers, you and
I are willing to spend so that there can be a dam acceptable to both
ICOLD and ICDRP?
Are dam builders saying ? let us kill 10 indigenous people so that
100 people can benefit from electricity? Are dam builders telling us,
let us deny 10 more people the source of their livelihood so that
these 100 people can satisfy their energy needs.
Then when these dams fail, as they inevitably do, will dam builders
say, hey lets move downstream, kill those 10 other indigenous people
downstream so that those 100 people will have uninterrupted power
supply from a second dam.
And what is the WCD saying? Our interpretation: The WCD is saying let
us still provide those 100 people electricity. But also do not kill
those 30 people. And by the way, why can't we provide those 30 people
with electricity too and at the same time improve their physical and
social environment.
And what are we saying; we the so-called indigenous people, we the
so-called tribes. We say at last! Here is a bible! The gospel
according to WCD is what we have been waiting for to bring sanity and
rationale in dam building
And what are dam builders telling us? This is expensive ... this will
be time consuming. This echoes the very problems we are faced with
deep in the remote areas where dams are built.
For example, soon after my ordeal, a JBIC mission came to Kenya to
have first hand information about what is happening in their
Yen-funded project. Over two days, the community complained and
presented evidence of how the project had subjected them to so much
grief.
Then what did JBIC do? They told us: "This is purely a Kenyan
problem. We are giving you until March to sort out your problems or
we will stop the project."
It was then explained to the poor folks that they would lose their
daily wages of US$2 as menial laborers if the project stopped.
Why? Is it because they find the community demands unrealistic,
expensive and can only lead to the stopping of the project ? the same
old doomsday messages that dam builders give?
The people panicked and said: OK don't stop the project, but solve
our problems first. What kind of problems are these that JBIC finds
unrealistic, time consuming, expensive warranting them to walk out of
the power project? A detailed list will be circulated but briefly
their concerns center around their environment, the project's
benefits to them and governance issues in the project.
What message did JBIC give its taxpayers when the mission went back
to Japan? That the Kenyans have said they want the project to go on!
Not a mention of the community demands to the Japanese taxpayers. It
is a matter of time before JBIC continues funding this project while
the very simple community grievances remain unresolved.
Is this what industry is telling us. Trash the WCD report, suffer the
dam-affected people and let there be light?
Soon I will be moaning the death of three women. Three women on the
verge of death. Victims of dust pollution from project activities in
Sondu-Miriu. They now have TB. They are too poor to afford medical
treatment. It is just a matter of time for them. They are not
authorized use of a hospital built in the project area because it can
only be used exclusively by the dam builders. During their funeral, I
will carry under my armpit our only source of hope ? the WCD bible.
Before I close, I would like to dedicate my remaining one minute to
these three women and other dam affected people and environmental
activists all over the world who have died under different
circumstances or been incarcerated or harmed so that there can be
light.
THANK YOU
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network <'})))>><
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to majordomo@netvista.net
with no subject and the following text in the body of the message
"unsubscribe irn-safrica".
----- End of forwarded message from Lori Pottinger -----