UMERKOT: Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum has demanded Sindh Envi­ronmental Protection Agency reject the ‘bogus’ Environmental Impact Assessment which gave a go-ahead to Nabisar reservoir project, and take action against irrigation officials who started work on it without waiting for its approval.

The forum’s chairman Mohammad Ali Shah and other office-bearers said at a press conference here on Wednesday that it was the agency’s responsibility not to support capitalists and safeguard rights of local people.

It should reject the “ill-intentioned” EIA and conduct a new one because in its present form it would lead to water crisis in the arid region if water was taken from Nabisar to coal site, they said and added “we reject this project which will harm locals’ rights”.

They said that the reservoir was being built at a cost of Rs20 billion in collaboration with an international company for taking water to Thar Coal site, which was sure to harm environment on a massive scale. Coal mining and coal power plants consumed a huge amount of water that contained dangerous effluent and particles which polluted clean water, they said.

Thar had already very limited water resources, which were endangered due to coal mining and power generation. In short, there would be acute water shortage in Thar, they feared.

They informed that over next 30 years, 4,000 billion gallons of water would be used on coal mining in Thar while 8,500 billion gallons water would be used to produce 10 gigawatt; in the process it would turn upside down the entire water cycle of Thar.

They said that in addition, use of water in coal mining and power plants would damage natural beauty and people would lose their historical rights on land.

They said their team visited the site of Nabisar dam and was surprised to learn that Rs10 billion had already been squandered on the project, which was designed for LBOD water. Later on, they realised that LBOD contained saline water which could not be used for Thar Coal projects and changed the plan.

“What a pity that a huge amount of public money was allowed to go down the drain. Now, they plan to use 200 cusecs of water of Farsh Makhi canal meant for agriculture for Thar Coal, which will deprive locals of their right on the canal’s water,” they said.

“This water would be taken over to Nabisar and then Vejhiar, another reservoir, through a 60-kilometre pipeline. Then, it will be supplied to the Thar Coal site. Irrigation experts say that annually around 40 million cubic metre water will be taken, which will affect people and environment but the EIA report has not discussed it.”

They said that Nabisar dam would use 265 acres of land while Vejhiar dam would cover 205 acres, which was pastureland. There was already a dam in Vejhiar and if another dam was constructed it would badly affect people and their livestock, they cautioned.

Besides, 70-feet-wide and 62km-long pipeline from Nabisar to Vejhiar would use 325 acres whose proper compensation had not been settled, they said.

According to an estimate, a total of 795 acres would be used and more than 300,000 trees would have to be cut to make way for the project while the EIA report claims that no tree will be cut down. “Out of nine dying trees on the list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, five are found in Thar and these are very slow growing trees whose re-growth can take years,” they feared.

Nabisar Union Council’s chairman Ahmed Saeed Memon informed the PFF team that they were neither informed about the dam’s construction nor their consent was sought.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2020