HARIPUR: The government should approve the National Resettlement Policy and legislate on it before going for big dams to develop a sense of ownership among the affected communities, said expert Ejaz Ahmad Khan on Tuesday.

Mr Ejaz, who is the coordinator of the Pakistan Network for Rivers and Dams and president of the Social Organisation for Mutasireen Tarbela Dam, told reporters here that the announcement of the Supreme Court chief justice and PTI government for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams was a welcome move and that it should be supported in the country’s best interest.

He said the country had only two big dams, while China had 84,000, including 4,000 big dams, and India had 5,000 dams. “The building of new dams is imperative for addressing growing energy crisis and water shortage for future generations,” he said.

Accompanied by advocate for dams-affected communities Shabbir Anwar Khan, he complained about the plight of the people affected by Tarbela dam.

He said the Tarbela dam project had displaced 96,000 residents of 135 villages of Haripur and Swabi forcing them to sacrifice 84,000 acres of fertile land, culture, echo system and graveyards of their forefathers, but the government didn’t fulfil the promises made to them.

“For developing a sense of ownership among the communities to be affected by future dam projects, the government should approve the National Resettlement Policy made in 1998,” he said.

The expert asked the government to legislate on resettlement issue in line with the national policy before executing dam projects. He said the run-of-the-river dam projects should be preferred to prevent displacements, while confidence building measures should be taken before the execution of new dams.

The expert said the people would take those projects as their own instead of the government’s if their resettlement and protection of social, culture, economic and environmental rights were ensured through policy measures.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018