By Pankaj Sarma
AGP members protest in Guwahati on Wednesday against the construction of mega dams.
Guwahati, Oct 28 : The Arunachal Pradesh government’s failure to implement some key recommendations made in a World Bank report has apparently led to the controversy over dams and inter-state clashes over the upcoming hydropower projects in that state.
An official source privy to the comprehensive report said it had recommended maintaining high level of transparency (public access to draft plans and data) and consultation with stakeholders (such as communities affected by floods and erosion on tributaries), which was never followed in true spirit when the Arunachal Pradesh government signed memoranda of understanding and memoranda of association with several power generation companies, including some large private players.
“As a result of that, there has been widespread apprehension and protests against the possible disastrous impact in the downstream areas in Assam because of construction of these dams in Arunachal Pradesh, which has put the two states on a collision course,” the source said.
The report of the World Bank study, titled Study on Natural Resources, Water and the Environment Nexus for Development and Growth in North East India, was submitted to the Centre in 2008. The study was conducted at the initiative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“The study has strongly advocated cooperation among the northeastern states for river management to control flood and erosion and to harness hydropower potential but that does not seem to be happening with Assam and Arunachal expressing contradictory views on this issue. Moreover, the upcoming projects in Arunachal are solely for power generation and not for flood moderation,” the source said.
To ensure better coordination among the states, the study also recommended setting up of a “new river basin management institution” with regulatory powers that would work across the entire Northeast and “for many decisions, other stakeholders, for example communities affected by floods or erosion on tributaries, should be included”.
“The proposed North East Water Resources Authority (Newra) which could have functioned as the river basin management institution as suggested in the report, could not be constituted as yet since Arunachal refused to give its consent,” the source said.
Barring Arunachal Pradesh, all the states of the region have agreed to the Centre’s proposal to set up the authority which was modelled on the lines of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the US.
The Arunachal government has already signed MoUs and MoAs for construction of 100-odd hydro-projects with a total capacity of around 32,000 MW with different power generation companies.
The World Bank study says that international experience in past decades has shown that it is generally advisable to separate construction from other functions (like impact on downstream areas and upper reaches, environment, ecology, effect on livelihood, etc), since the power generation companies easily get drawn into construction and neglect other vital issues.
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