KARACHI: Experts seek suspension of Indus river projects
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 10: Speakers at a conference on Tuesday demanded that the ongoing work on all the mega projects on the Indus river, including those identified in the Vision 2025 document, be stopped until adequate flows, downstream Kotri barrage were guaranteed.
The unanimous resolution adopted at the National Dams’ Affectees Conference, organized by the Pakistan Network for Rivers, Dams and People, further demanded that no new projects be launched unless all the pending social, environmental and resettlement issues pertaining to earlier projects were properly addressed and the affected communities were properly rehabilitated.
They said that before any other project was announced, water share be judiciously fixed and that an independent body be established to ensure that every province got its fair share of water. They said at present one province was using the water of other provinces.
They said that usually, the mega projects were established in remote rural areas, affecting poor villagers, while the benefits of these projects were harvested by those living in far away places.
They said that usually good resettlement plans and compensation were announced for the affectees, who had to be relocated, but most of the time the real affectees were not compensated, and the allocation was either mismanaged or given to the others by the corrupt project managers.
Representatives of affectees of various mega projects, including Tarbella Dam, Mangla Dam, Chashma Rights Bank Canal project, Ghazi Barotha power project, Chotiyari Reservoir, Thal canal, Kachhi canal, etc shared their problems and told the paricipents about the unfulfilled government promises, made at the time of launching these projects.
They said that due to construction of various dams, reservoirs and barrages, water of Indus was being stored and regulated, which resulted in a decreased flow down stream Kotri Barrage, which had serious consequences for the delta.
They said that the Indus used to bring heavy load of silt with its water that used to recharge the coastal areas and mangrove forests that act as the nurseries of various commercially important marine species like shrimp, prawns, etc.
They said that due to water shortage the mangroves had suffered, the fish catch had gone down, crippling the fragile economy of fishermen and the country’s foreign exchange earnings from the export of marine food products had also gone down.
They said that due to less Indus water going to sea, the saline sea water was making incursions and had affected large areas in the coastal districts of Thatta and Badin. The subsoil aquifers had also become saline due to water incursions, creating even scarcity of drinking water, which had forced the people to migrate to other areas, they said.
They further said that water quality had suffered due to discharge of synthetic fertiliser and chemical pesticide used in agriculture.
They said that due to seepage of the irrigation channels, on one hand the water was being lost and on the other, fertile land was being affected by water logging.
Affectees of Manchhar Lake said that due to the discharge of saline water into the lake, it had turned saline and many species of fish and vegetation had vanished, affecting the entire ecosystem, and compelling thousands of fishermen, who used to live in boats in the lake, to migrate.
The affectees of Chotiyari reservoir said that due to the construction of the storage, many shallow water lakes would disappear and the desert ecosystem would be affected. They said that poor people of Sanghar district were dislocated, while a few influential people in Umerkot district would benefit from the Chotiyari reservoir.
Affectees of Ghazi Barotha project said almost one of the compensation reserved for the affectees had been misappropriated and now the inquires had been instituted and even the genuine affectees, who had already received less, were being harassed.
The affectees of Tarbella dam said that a large number of the affectees had not been properly compensated or resettled, as had been promised decades back. They urged the affectees of other projects to learn lesson from their experience and not to believe the project managers.
The speakers said that though no allocations had been made for the Thal canal, its construction had begun and once it was completed it would start a fresh controversy over water distribution and could further create resentment among various federating units.
Affectees of Kachhi Canal said that with the start of the construction work on the canal, large tracts of land in Kachhi district were being allotted to non-locals, which was creating resentment among the natives, who felt cheated. They said that the canal design had also been changed.
The affectees of Mangla Dam Height Raise project said that a large number of Mangla dam affectees had not yet been compensated though the project was launched decades back, and now the affectees of the new project were not ready to accept any more promises. They said that over 8,000 families had not yet been resettled or properly compensated.
The speakers said that definition of affectees be expanded and people living downstream be also included in it, and that all the affectees of mega projects, who had not yet been compensated be paid and resettled immediately.
They demanded that all the land acquisition through the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 be stopped and new policy be formulated. They said that report of World Commission on Dams be adopted as a guiding principle, while planning new projects, and that a national-level process of dialogue be initiated before any project was implemented.
Qazi Abdul Majeed, Prof Ejaz Qureshi, Karamat Ali, Nazir Memon, Tahir Jamil, Ahsan Khan, Prof M. Nauman, Majeed Mangrio, A. G. N. Abbasi, Sikander Brohi, Ghulam Mohammad, Naeem Iqbal, Khalid Hussein, Arif Chaudhry, Najeed Afsar, Ghulam Mustafa Mirani, Arib Malah, Fayyaz Rasool, Hifza Kedar, Fida Hussain Channa, and others spoke on the occasion.
