02 February 2004	Monday	10 Zilhaj 1424

ISLAMABAD, Feb 1: The People's Rights Movement (PRM) has demanded immediate public appraisal of all mega water projects launched in Pakistan over the past couple of decades given the announcement of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) mission that almost $2.7 billion loans have been agreed upon with the government for the so-called "farm sector".

In a statement issued here on Saturday, the PRM said this was the second massive loan agreement that had been made with the international financial institutions (IFIs) in recent times following the announcement some months ago made by the World Bank that it was allocating approximately $3 billion for the water sector.

This massive investment into the water sector is also reflected in the recently released Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in which the maximum resource exploitation philosophy that characterised structural adjustment policies through the 1980s and 1990s has been reiterated without a comprehensive appraisal of the impacts of adjustment policies in general and mega water projects in particular.

Given the serious divides within the country over water projects such as the Greater Thal Canal and Kalabagh Dam, it is difficult to understand how the IFIs and the government can justify the conclusion of such massive agreements, especially considering the established adverse impacts of water projects funded by the IFIs.

In this regard, the Chashma Right Bank Irrigation Protect, the Left Bank Outfall Drain, and the Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project stand out. All three of these projects have exceeded their cost estimates by a considerable margin, while displacing thousands of families, destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of previously arable land, uprooting age-old livelihood systems, and inflicting immeasurable ecological damage.

It is now clear in most countries of the world that the paradigm of mechanised and capitalist agriculture is no longer sustainable and that subsistence, small-scale agriculture and livestock rearing cannot be marginalised any longer.

In this regard, mega water projects have also been condemned far and wide and PRM demands that the government and the IFIs alter their myopic approaches to meet people's needs.

The PRM once again condemned the misrepresentation of economic revival. The Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project is currently non-operational, causing massive losses to the national exchequer.

Meanwhile, the government is celebrating the pre-payment of loans to the ADB while agreeing to take even more loans for obsolete water projects, making a mockery of claims that the country has reclaimed economic sovereignty and is reducing its dependence on foreign loans.