October 14, 2010
Submitted by Sindhu Bachao Tarla to the World Bank, Islamabad
This is not the first time that we, the Taunsa Barrage
victims, are observing peaceful hunger strike in front of the World Bank
Office. The first such hunger strike was held in February 2007. At that
time, our main demand was the establishment of an independent
investigation commission on the World Bank financed Taunsa Barrage
Emergency Rehabilitation and Modernization Project (TBERM). The project
loan was approved on an emergency basis, the justification that
catastrophic barrage failure could occur in the near future. We asked
the Bank to mandate the proposed investigation commission to ascertain
the necessity and appropriateness of engineering interventions in the
name of rehabilitating and remodelling Taunsa Barrage. Further we
informed the Bank that the project had displaced hundreds of families,
destroyed river environment, but also warned that the flooding problems
would be exacerbated in the future owing to flawed engineering
interventions. However, our concerns were dismissed by the World Bank.
Years of watching and living with the river and the barrage deemed
insufficient knowledge by your technicians.
Today we are again holding a hunger strike to inform the
Bank that the rehabilitation and remodelling works financed under its
project failed to avert the risk of barrage failure. Rather, the
evidence on the ground shows that the numerous 'faulty' engineering
interventions directly contributed to barrage failure and thus caused
the unprecedented flood disaster in Muzaffargarh District. The flooding
in Muzaffargarh District began with the breach in Abbasswala Bund. As a
result, with an unknown number of lives lost, 2 million people were
displaced, their crops, animals, houses and other sources of livelihoods
washed away.
The breach at the left bank marginal bund was not the
natural one. Rather, the breach was caused by a number of factors linked
to the rehabilitation and remodelling project. The peak flood flows were
obstructed by the coffer dams largely left in place upon project
completion. These coffer dams were constructed to manage flood flows
temporarily to carry out repair and remodelling works in the active bed
channel. It was assumed the gigantic quantities of soil would be washed
away naturally or through barrage de-silting functions. However, the
existence of coffer dams turned out to be the main structural obstacle
to disrupt river flows, diverting them towards the east bank of the
Indus River.
Further, the operational rules of the barrage were to be
revised after the installation of the computerized gates and
remodelling. It was an intrinsic part of the project objectives to
provide the relevant barrage staff with the necessary training on the
revised operational rules of the barrage. With the failure to open eight
barrage gates one wonders as to effectiveness of the training that the
irrigation staff received.
Under the project, the WB was supposed to improve the river
training works. The height of the flood protection embankments was to be
raised in correspondence with the raised crust level of the barrage
floor. However, raising the height of flood protection embankments never
materialized.
The hill-torrents from Suleiman Range discharging into the
Indus River cause heavy amounts of silt deposition in the upstream of
the barrage. It adversely impacts drainage through the barrage. We have
consistently pointed out this factor with the World Bank. Once again
ignoring local knowledge, in its technical arrogance, the Bank failed to
consider the silt deposition factor in its project design.
To put it simply the remodelled and modernized barrage, its
associated works, was a significant, in fact, the major, cause of the
flooding of Muzaffargarh district.
Our claims
We are observing this hunger strike to claim the following:
1. The establishment of an independent investigation commission to
ascertain the specific causes of the structural failure of Taunsa Barrage.
2. We believe the judicial enquiry currently undertaken at the Lahore
High Court , on embankment breaches and other aspects of the Indus
floods in Punjab, should be an open, public hearing and official reports
and data submitted should be accessible by all. Its current secretive
modality is unacceptable.
3. The World Bank should cancel the payment of the project loan in
order to allocate it entirely for flood recovery and reconstruction in
Muzaffargarh District. The urgent demand in this regard is the
commitment to prepare the second resettlement plan for two hundred
families displaced during the project. They are now once again displaced
due to the barrage failure.
4. Both the World Bank and Asian Development Bank are steering the
Flood Damages and Needs Assessment (FDNA). We protest against the sheer
lack of consultation with the flood affected groups and their
participation in this process.
5. In damages and needs assessment process, the World Bank should
recommend the Punjab Government to impose flood tax on urban property
and other sources of wealth. If the Bank fails to do so, it will be
understood that the Bank is only concerned in increasing its own
disbursements.
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