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Special
Reports/Water Crisis |
How to end large dam controversies
By Muhammad Idris Rajput
AFTER lobbying for 2-3 months for water reservoirs, President
General Pervez Musharraf announced the construction of Basha
and Munda dams in February 2006, adding that Kalabagh,
Akhori and Kuram Tangi dams would be constructed by 2016.
 The
announcement did not end the dam controversy and Sindhi
nationalist leaders held marathon demonstrations in
Hyderabad and in Larkana. Now people of Northern Areas are
raising their voice over Basha dam also.
Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights-1948, human
rights are recognized without any discrimination. As such,
policies that deny the rights of some to serve special
interests of others, can not be tenable. Thus any policy or
law adopted must be based on respect for the rights and
entitlements of all.
In 1986, the United Nations’ General Assembly adopted the
declaration on the Right to Development: It implies that:
* Development is a comprehensive process aiming at the
constant improvement of the entire population; it affects
economics, civic, social, cultural and political rights.
* National development policies aiming at the constant
improvement of the well-being of the entire population
should be formulated on the basis of their active, free and
meaningful benefits resulting there from.
* The right of peoples to exercise full and complete
sovereignty over all their natural wealth and resources.
In 1992, the UN conference on Environment and Development
adopted Rio Declaration on Environment and Development which
implied that:
* Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable
development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive
life in harmony with nature.
* The right to development must be met in an equitable way
that considers future generations as well a present
participants in development.
According to International Commission on Large Dam (ICOLD) a
large dam is one whose height above foundation is 15 meters
(50ft) or more or if its height is between 5-15 meters (16ft
to 50ft) but has a reservoir volume of more than three
million cubic meters (0.0024 million acre feet). There are
more than 45,000 large dams around the world.
The large dam controversy is not Pakistan-specific but has
spread all over the world after 1970 when ill-effects of
large dams on society and environment apart from their
benefits have come to limelight.
In order to overcome these controversies, the World Bank and
IUCN along with several other agencies funded a study to
review the situation and chalk out a framework of actions so
that future controversies during construction could be
avoided.
After studying the situation for a period of two years, a
report has been prepared named as, “Dams and Development- a
new framework for decision-making.” The report recommends a
two-stage strategy to overcome future controversies. In the
first stage, assessment and options for meeting these needs
are suggested. In the second, planning implementation and
operation strategy is suggested.
The report suggests that the quantum of electricity and
water needed for a year be assessed first. Having determined
that, the need remains to find out what other options are
available to meet this shortage. Reservoirs are one of the
several options.
Since large dam construction lead to controversies, it is
better to try other non-controversial options. These can be
of three types viz. new supply option, improving the
existing supply system and effective management of water and
electricity use.
Water options: New supply options can be the construction of
small dams on tributaries, diversion, detention or retention
dams on hill torrents, rejuvenation of depleting aquifers,
tapping underground sweet water through installation of
tube-wells or skimming wells, rain water harvesting, and
recycling drainage water.
Improvement of the supply system can be carried out through
watershed management, controlling sedimentation in
reservoirs, controlling evaporations from reservoir pond,
lining of canals and water courses and proper maintenance of
irrigation system.
For effective management of water use, possibilities are
farm application efficiency, change in cropping pattern and
crop varieties, micro irrigation method, and change in crop
cultivation practices.
Electricity Options: New supply options can be hydropower
coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, biomass, wind, solar,
geothermal and ocean. There is a big scope of hydropower
generation on run-of-river project where there is no
storage. These can be at Bunji, Thakot, Dasu etc on river
Indus. There are big reservoirs of coal in Thar in Sindh
which can be exploited. Natural Gas can be used for new
power houses.
Regarding supply side efficiency, attempt should be to
reduce line losses in generation, transmission and
distribution. These, at present, are 40 per cent but can be
reduced to 15 per cent and can obviate the need of new
supply.
Regarding effective use of electricity, there is great scope
of developing low consumption efficient devices such as
bulbs, rods, irons, fridges and air conditions. Also
limiting business hours up to 5:00 pm can reduce consumption
substantially. Electricity efficient building can be
designed.
If water and electricity needs can be met through these
options, there is no need to go for construction of large
dams. However, if the construction of large dams become
inevitable, a proper procedure should be followed.
The main controversies are about site and benefit sharing.
There are two groups in this context, beneficiaries and
affectees. The beneficiaries are the government,
politicians, lending agencies, construction industry,
contractors, big landlords and big factory owners. The
affectees are, farmers, landowners, household owners,
herders and fishermen of lower delta and the reservoir
areas.
Large dams are built for development and as per requirement
of human rights, people affected should at least be as well
off as they would have been in absences of such a dam. They
need to be compensated, helped in housing relocation and
restoration of incomes and livelihoods. This can only be
achieved if these affectees are associated in planning,
implementation and operation of a dam and proper safeguards
have been provided to them.
Project planning: This covers detailed planning and design
and scheme should be technically, financially and
economically sound. All dam affectees be associated
throughout this process. There should be negotiated
settlement with them.
The tendering construction contract should be conditional
upon negotiated agreements for benefits sharing mechanism
and for mitigation, compensation, development and compliance
mechanism in addition to technical requirements.
Project implementation: Compliance with relevant time bound
commitments such as benefit-sharing and mitigation measures
is required before commissioning of the project.
Project operation: Any changes in operating conditions
should be based on participatory review of project
performance and impacts.
According to the World Commission on Dams, if the above
procedure is followed, the future water and power needs can
be met and future controversies can be avoided. Simply
announcing the construction of dam without looking into
problems of affectees and their solution will not help
achieve development goals.
Courtesy :
The DAWN
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