ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN (20) NEPAL: Bonn Urged Not To Assist Arun III Dam Project
BONN, Nov 12 (IPS) - A leading German development expert urged the Bonn government this week not to give assistance for the controversial 200-megawatt Arun III dam project in eastern Nepal.
The outgoing chairman of Germany's parliamentary committee on economic cooperation, Professor Uwe Holtz said there were several indications already that the Arun III would prove to be a "development policy fiasco with serious ecological and financial consequences".
Bonn has yet to take a formal decision on providing 200 million marks (135 million dollars). However, there is widespread concern that it may decide to go ahead without prior consultation with the newly elected parliament.
"We will not tolerate any cloak-and-dagger action. The government must wait until the Bundestag has set up a new committee on economic cooperation which would cast a close look at the project," said opposition Social Democratic Party's (SPD) aid policy spokesman Professor Ingomar Hauchler.
"It is incomprehensible that Bonn has not learnt from bad experiences with megaprojects in the Amzonas and in India -- the Sardar Sarovar damm," added Holtz, also a Social Democrat.
Holtz headed the parliamentary committe for a record period of 20 years, before deciding not to contest for a seat in the new Bundestag which constituted itself this week in Berlin.
Instead of knowingly calling into question the sense and purpose behind development aid, by aiding Arun III project, Bonn should pressure the World Bank and other donor nations to assist Nepal, one of the world's poorest nations, to evolve a development strategy that makes sense, said Holtz in an interview with IPS.
"Such a strategy should include combatting poverty, promoting rural devolopment and agriculture, education and vocational training, and measures to reduce population growth and not the least helping build up small decentralised environment friendly hydro-electric power stations," Holtz said.
Holtz was apparently backing the view expressed by the representatives of the Arun Concerned Group (ACG), a Nepali non- governmental organisation which filed a complaint with the World Bank's new inspection panel a fortnight ago.
The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the German Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW) and Japan are the major backers of the project.
© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service