• by IPS Correspondents (washington)
• Monday, December 19, 1994
• Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dic 19 (IPS) - Nepal's environmental activists have scored a major victory: the World Bank's new inspection panel finds that a proposed dam project may violate key Bank policies.

In its first-ever finding, the panel asked the Bank's executive board to authorise a "further investigation" into what it called "apparent violations of (Bank) policy" in the planning and design of the Arun III project.

At the same time, the three panel members said they could "foresee a variety of approaches to bring Arun III into conformity with IDA policies." IDA refers to the International Development Association, the Bank's soft-loan facility, which is currently considering a 140-million-dollar loan for the project.

But it added that "the clear identification" of problems with the design is "only an essential first step in a better approach to Arun III by IDA".

Activists here immediately hailed the panel's decision. "We really welcome this recommendation and feel that further investigation will cause the project to be shelved altogether," said Lori Udall of the California-based World Rivers Network.

The panel, which was set up this year after an embarrassing public relations disaster over another Bank-funded dam project in India, is supposed to hear complaints from people who could be adversely affected by the implementation of planned projects.

A Bank official said the recommendation will be studied and that the Bank will be consulting with Nepal's government, co- financiers, and its executive board. He added that the decision was "clear evidence of the independence of the panel".

Its recommendation, taken after reviewing the complaint and a formal reply by the Bank itself, appears to vindicate at least some of the activists' longstanding charges, most notably that Bank officials did not devote enough effort to studying possible alternatives to the dam.

The activists, a coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) making up the Arun Concerned Group (ACG), argued that smaller, less expensive, and less environmentally damaging dams should be built instead. Smaller dams would also help build local industrial capacity, according to the Group.

With a total price tag of 764 million dollars, equivalent to the annual budget of Nepal's government, the Arun dam project is designed to generate electricity for industry, tourism, household consumption and for export to India.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement