ISLAMABAD 26th Feb, 2007, The affectees of Taunsa Barrage Remodeling Project in Southern Punjab started an indefinite hunger strike in front of the World Bank building here at Islamabad today, to protest against the Bank's induced Taunsa Barrage Emergency Rehabilitation and Modernization Project (TBERMP) demanding the formation of an enquiry commission on the project that caused loss of livelihood, shelter, canals closure, river erosion and displacement in the name of resettlement.
They presented a memorandum of demands to Mr. John Wall (World Bank representative), when he came to meet with the hunger strikers and ask about their issues. He refused to set up an enquiry commission on Taunsa Barrage Project and rejected the demands of the protesters; in response to this the Hunger Strikers have decided to prolong the hunger strike to indefinite period until the formation of an enquiry commission.
Dozens of women, men and children from the affected communities including in-land fisherfolk, indigenous people, and civil society accused the World Bank of backtracking from their commitment to give due compensation and a proper living to these communities forcibly displaced. They also accused the Irrigation Department of the government of Punjab of demanding bribe from them for providing them jobs and land for resettlement.
"Displacement became painful as the alternate places have no livelihood opportunities, basic civic amenities including clean drinking water, latrines and privacy for women," said Aamna Bibi, 46 while registering her complaint. She said we have not option but to go on indefinite hunger strike as even at our places we lead a life with miseries and hunger.
The project is causing displacement of 200 families whose resettlement and livelihood is a big issue now. Due to the project, canal closure right at the time of Rabbi crop (peak wheat growing season), project induced water logging, river erosion and loss of livelihood is directly and indirectly impacting millions of people who have lost their lands and could not grow crops.
"The very unfortunate fact is that the World Bank does not recognize that the communities are being badly affected due to this project though it only recognizes partially the issue of displacement and that is why resettlement is being done that too on flimsy grounds and insufficiently," said Azhar Lashari, Action Aid's Water Rights coordinator.
Meanwhile, the protesters under Sindhu Bachao Tarla (Save Indus Struggles), a broader people's alliance, comprising in-land fisher folk, indigenous peoples, small farmers and engaged academia and social and environmental activists in a memorandum handed over to the World Bank officials said that we demand an independent inquiry commission to see their problems caused due to this controversial project.
We are here today dozens of women and men violated by the World Bank-funded Taunsa Barrage Emergency Rehabilitation and Modernization Project (TBMERP) to demand justice, in accordance with our principle of non-violent civil disobedience. And if, as has been our experience to date, the World Bank and its partner, the government of Pakistan, do not provide justice as they so often claim to do, our nonviolent and peaceful protest will continue and we will deliver our own judgment.
They were of the view that the remodeling of Taunsa Barrage has no sound justification. Many official studies undertaken in the past concluded that the barrage was safe and didn confront any formidable risk of collapse. The World Bank's own technical studies admit that there is no way of telling when and how the Taunsa Barrage might collapse. As there is no working system in place to monitor the subsurface river flows, the claims about the potential collapse of Taunsa Barrage in near future are merely wild guess. Moreover, this is highly doubtful that the structural remodeling, particularly the construction of four thousand feet long secondary weir in the downstream, will solve the problems which are mainly result of ecologically flawed river control and engineering technologies.
Since its inception, the project caused unbearable sufferings to local communities and involved massive losses and damages to their livelihoods. The canals irrigating millions of acres in Dera Ghazi Khan and Muzaffargarh district are closed every year in the winter seasons which not only result in large income and livelihood losses but also create acute drinking water crisis. The indigenous groups were involuntarily displaced and they are now compelled to continue living in improper and unhealthy resettlement sites. Similarly, a large number of farmers are facing the risk of permanent loss of their housing and agricultural lands owing to chronic water logging exacerbated by excessive and prolonged water releases to Muzaffargarh and Taunsa-Panjnad Link Canal. In addition, thousands acres of land in the left bank of the Indus River have been permanently lost due to temporary flow diversions for construction work. However, there is as yet no proper recognition and documentation of these losses and damages.
The manners of project planning and implementation are highly secretive and lack transparency and information sharing. The latest example in this regard is the continuous effort from both the World Bank and Punjab Irrigation Department to hide the results of official enquiry report on the recent breach of coffer dam at Taunsa Barrage. The breach occurred in very mysterious circumstances and involves the waste of billions of rupees to be finally paid by poor tax payers.
They further said that, we are therefore here, as we have been in the past, to demand that the World Bank recognize its part in inflicting unprecedented sufferings on local communities as well as causing the irreversible destruction of ecology.
We declare that our indefinite hunger strike will continue until and unless the World Bank accedes to our demand for the establishment of independent enquiry commission and provide us written guarantee of redressing people's grievances.
Contact Person: Azhar Lashary
Program Officer-Water Rights
ActionAid International Pakistan
Email: azhar.lashari@actionaid.org
Cell: 0302-5455224
