THE Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) project brought environmental and socio-economic disaster, specially for people in Badeen who approached the inspection panel of the World Bank for non-partisan investigation of the WB-funded project. The inspection panel submitted its findings to the World Bank in July 2006. The report established that the project was victim of a flawed design, bad execution and poor monitoring.

In response to findings of the inspection panel, the World Bank chalked out a plan of action comprising short-term, medium-term and long-term measures for damage control. However, this action plan repeats a major flaw of the LBOD project i.e. lack of consultation with the project affectees. The inspection highlighted the fact that the stakeholders were not properly consulted in the LBOD project at key stages. Interestingly the World Bank started remedial measures with the same mistake and no stakeholder consultation was carried out while designing the damage control and compensation action plan. As a result important stakeholders such as civil society and local affectees started disowning this plan at the very outset.

A World Bank document ‘Elaboration of the short-term action plan’ issued on Oct 30, 2006 contains very little to redresses miseries o f the affectees of the LBOD project.

The Coastal Area Development Programme (CADP) will be implemented by the World Bank through Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and its partner NGOs. Scope of the project includes (i) access to basic services and infrastructure (ii) raising incomes through improved crops, fisheries and livestock production, marketing and micro-finance services (iii) securing access to, and better management of the coastal area’s natural resources; (iv) identifying viable community organisations that can operate in partnership with the public and private sector and NGOs and, (v) better access to high quality education, information, training and nutrition and health.

Obviously, World Bank loan can never be considered as compensation. It is strange that miseries inflicted by one loan are being ‘compensated’ through another. The bank should not only issue a compensation grant for affectees but should also write off the loan given for the LBOD project.

Since civil society has serious reservations on the way the LBOD was implemented without active consultation with and involvement of stakeholders, the bank should ensure that the compensation package is also designed, executed and independently monitored through credible civil society organisations, with proper representation of the affectees. A CADP Programme Steering Committee should look after the CADP affairs with at least 50 per cent representation from civil society, specially the affected persons.

Socio-economic and environmental assessment of dhands: The World Bank and the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) will undertake this assessment with two objectives. (i) to determine the extent and severity of the adverse impacts that have hit the people living near the dhands or in areas that have been directly impacted, and formulate short-term measures and long-term livelihood assistance programmes; and (ii) to determine the present physical and ecological condition of the dhands paying particular attention to water quality, biodiversity and habitat, and the productivity and quality of the fishery.

Ecological disaster inflicted upon the lake system is enormous. Socio-economic and environmental assessment could be an appropriate beginning, but the World Bank needs to commit for development and implementation of a long-term “lake system conservation and management plan”. Only assessment without any clearly defined follow-up would hardly serve any good to the devastated lakes.

The lake system rehabilitation would be a difficult job in the given conditions where in absence of Cholri Weir, the lakes’ salinity levels have surpassed even sea salinity levels.

Knowing Sida’s institutional state of affairs it is unrealistic to assign such task to it, which lacks in relevant human resource and institutional capacity. This scale of work can only be done by highly experienced conservation organisations. Proper involvement of local fishing communities would be a key to success of any such plan. Rehabilitation of fishing communities largely depends on proper rehabilitation of the lake system.

Rapid assessment of existing local government flood risk management system: The study aims at identifying the gaps in the system and a programme to fill these gaps. Immediate measures outlined for vulnerable villages include construction of flood platforms and refuges, construction of small flood bunds, improving drains, and reducing isolation and improving mobility by improving village roads.

In short term this may have some positive impact on certain localities but surely it would not reduce the scale of vulnerability of Badeen communities against perpetual natural disasters compounded by man-made causes such as failure of tidal link. Rapid assessment can also be a useful start but would remain always insufficient unless entailed with a “Comprehensive Disaster Mitigation and Management Plan for Lower Sindh”. Since the tidal link of the LBOD has been a major blockade against natural south-east-ward flows of storm water thus causing flood-bound disasters, the World Bank should commit developing and implementation of such long-term plan to avert future disasters.

In the given resources and institutional capacity, local stakeholders will not be able to benefit from only assessment of flood risk management system. It requires enhancement of capacities and necessary infrastructure e.g. trained human resource, equipment, basic infrastructure and flood warning and emergency response systems.

Strengthening of the Right Bank of the LBOD spinal drain and KPOD: The World Bank , in collaboration with Wapda and Sida, plans to undertake a detailed field examination of the right embankment of the spinal drain and KPOD. The mission will identify vulnerable sections, identify specific measures that may be needed to complete secure repair of the old breaches and prepare a detailed maintenance plan including estimates of the cost of civil works. The WB would be willing to provide support for its implementation if requested.

What is very transparent now, is that the maintenance of the KPOD or tidal link will not eliminate the risk of the LBOD-bound disasters. Through repair and maintenance, the KPOD can be restored to its original state at the best, which already succumbed to active erosion and flood. The outfall mechanism of the LBOD needs a thorough revision and more serious consideration of alternate options such as outfall through DPOD, the Rann of Cutch and the Kori Creek. The present outfall approach has already proved a failure and there is little wisdom in repairing the existing system, which will cost as much as a new construction would do.

Accelerated processing of WSIP project and establishment of the flood management planning programme: The World Bank and Sindh government have agreed to establish such a planning programme and undertake its implementation immediately when the new Water Sector Improvement Project (WSIP) project becomes effective. The WSIP project is expected to be presented to the World Bank board in February 2007. The planning studies will include options to improve the LBOD, and options to meet storm and agricultural drainage needs.

The WSIP is, in fact, a continuity of the $786 million National Drainage Programme, which could not meet its targets. Also the WSIP is another loan of $140 million and thus can not be considered as part of any compensation to the LBOD affectees. The unfinished LBOD was transferred to the NDP and now the unfinished NDP is being transferred to the WSIP. No one knows which new offspring of the WSIP will shoulder its unfinished agenda.

Strange enough that the NDP with such huge loan ended up with a large part of the project incomplete, and people of this country are not even informed about the fate of the $786 million project before taking another loan of $140 million.

The action plan offered by the World Bank shows that there is no genuine commitment to compensate the affected people of a failed mega project and now the dead body of the failed project is being used to pile new loans on poor people.