[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
dam-l LS: PR: German Govt. Report Blasts Maheshwar Dam
INTERNATIONAL RIVERS NETWORK ------------- URGEWALD
PRESS RELEASE EMBARGOED UNTIL JUNE 29, 2000
Patrick McCully Heffa Schücking
International Rivers Network Urgewald
Berkeley, CA, USA Sassenberg, Germany
Tel: +1 510 848 1155 Tel. +49 2583 1031
patrick@irn.org urgewald@koeln.netsurf.de
GERMAN GOVERNMENT REPORT BLASTS MAHESHWAR DAM
Acceptable Resettlement "Unlikely or Even Impossible"
The German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development today
released a strongly critical review of resettlement for the Maheshwar
Dam on India's Narmada River. The review was commissioned due to
controversy over a proposed export credit guarantee from the German
government to multinational company Siemens for the supply of
turbines to the project. The review team was led by Dr. Richard E.
Bissell, Executive Director of the Policy Division at the US National
Research Council and a former chairman of the World Bank's Inspection
Panel.
The report will put major pressure on the German government to
withdraw from Maheshwar. Such a withdrawal would force Siemens to
drop out or find another government with lower standards to guarantee
the turbine sales from one of the company's foreign subsidiaries.
Activists are ready to oppose any government which may be prepared to
take up the export credits for Maheshwar.
The increased uncertainty over the future of Maheshwar will also have
repercussions on US-based Ogden Corp., which is slated to make a
major investment in the project.
Following are some of the conclusions of the review:
* The number of people who would lose their land and jobs to the
project is "much higher" than claimed by project authorities, and the
amount of replacement land required for resettlers "would be many
times higher than the currently calculated requirement".
* It is "unlikely or even impossible" that agricultural land required
for resettlers would become available. "Land-for-land" resettlement
is required by Madhya Pradesh state policy and the clearance for the
project from the central government Ministry of Environment, and is
"considered the minimum acceptable level of rehabilitation" by the
review team.
* "the requirement of money for just the agricultural land would be
many times the current budget for the entire R&R [Resettlement and
Rehabilitation] plan."
* The payment of cash compensation to farmers by project authorities
"clearly violates the standard" that farmers should be provided with
replacement land.
* "the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board has been contracted by the S.
Kumars to carry out R&R. However, according to their officials, the
[Madhya Pradesh Electricty Board] has little or no experience in
implementing R&R . . . the resources and capability to carry out R&R
in accordance with the stated policy and conditions of clearance, do
not exist."
* "the project planning process was neither transparent nor
participatory. Even now, there is little transparency, participation
and democracy in the process of implementation."
* "the benefits of the dam to the regional and national power sector
have become increasingly controversial as the cost of construction is
now four times the estimate submitted to the government ten years
ago."
Heffa Schücking of the German NGO Urgewald said "The Bissell Report
confirms what we have long been telling our Government. As the
Government themselves have commissioned this report, we are confident
that Siemens application for export credit insurance will soon be
turned down."
The bulk of foreign investment in the Maheshwar Dam is slated to come
from New York-based Ogden Corp. Despite intense local opposition to
the project, Ogden Corp. signed a Memorandum of Intent to take a 49%
shareholding in the 400 megawatt dam during President Clinton's visit
to India in March this year.
"The Bissell Report makes a mockery of Ogden's statements that the
project will improve the quality of life of local people and shows
that the number of people affected will be many times higher than
they claim," says Patrick McCully. "Ogden should quit Maheshwar now."
Ogden Senior Vice-President, Kent Burton, has assured activists that
human rights and environmental considerations would not be
disregarded by the company, and that Ogden is committed to pursuing a
democratic, transparent process in their involvement in the project.
A number of international investors have already pulled out of
Maheshwar citing social, environmental and economic concerns. These
include San Francisco engineering giant Bechtel, Oregon utility
PacifiCorp, Dutch Bank ABN-Amro, and German utilities VEW Energie and
Bayernwerk.
Intense local opposition to the project has resulted in numerous dam
site occupations, marches, rallies and hunger strikes which, despite
mass arrests and beatings at the hands of police, have forced long
delays in project construction. The Bissell Report notes that this
opposition has meant that work on the project "has failed to meet any
of its deadlines". The project was scheduled to have been completed
in 1998 but the report states that "construction work is limited to
date".
Maheshwar Dam is part of the Narmada Valley Development Project which
envisages the construction of 30 large and 135 medium-sized dams in
the Narmada Valley. The most notorious of these projects has been the
mammoth Sardar Sarovar Dam under construction downstream from
Maheshwar in Gujarat state. The World Bank and bilateral aid donors
stopped financial support for large dams on the Narmada in the early
1990s. Maheshwar is the first attempt to finance one of these
projects through the private sector.
-- ends --
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND COPIES OF THE REPORT:
Patrick McCully, USA Tel. +1 510 848 1155 (w) +1 510 528 2930 (h);
patrick@irn.org
Heffa Schücking, Germany Tel: +49 2583 1031; urgewald@koeln.netsurf.de
International Rivers Network supports local communities working to
protect their rivers and watersheds. IRN works to halt destructive
river development projects, and to encourage equitable and
sustainable methods of meeting needs for water, energy and flood
management.
Urgewald is a German human-rights and environment organization that
monitors German involvement in large-scale projects in developing
countries. Urgewald's director is a recipient of the San
Francisco-based Goldman Environmental Prize.
WWW.IRN.ORG WWW.NARMADA.ORG WWW.URGEWALD.DE