A member of the Expert Committee of the Inter-Linking of Rivers (ILR) has opposed the government’s move to nominate its in-house agency for conducting an environment impact assessment (EIA) for the Par-Tapi-Narmada and Damanganga-Pinjal links.
Seeking “urgent attention” before the next ILR meeting on March 5, the expert, Himanshu Thakker, who heads the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, questioned the awarding of the work to m/s Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) Pvt. Limited (WAPCOS), a government enterprise under the aegis of the Ministry of Water Resources.
The norm is to hire an independent agency for EIA to avoid a conflict of interest and get an independent and competent assessment.
Quoting from the discussion papers for the forthcoming meeting, Mr. Thakker has written to the Water Resources Secretary and the chairman of the Committee of Environmentalists, Social Scientists and other Experts on Interlinking of Rivers voicing his concern.
“The work of the EIA study should be an independent assessment of the environment impact of the proposals, and the study is supposed to include a ‘No project’ option, listing of ‘unacceptable impacts,’ and the possible option of concluding that the project is ‘not viable.’ Such independent assessment cannot be done by an in-house organisation like WAPCOS, which is a part of the same house as the Water Resources Ministry and the National Water Development Agency,” Mr. Thakker said.
According to Mr. Thakker, WAPCOS has done surveys and investigations justifying river links and other such projects in the past.
“It has done such studies for river linking projects [the Pranhita Chavella link, for example] for Maharashtra and Gujarat, including projects like the Damanganga and Sardar Sarovar that have direct involvement in projects under discussion. An organisation in the business of doing such works cannot be entrusted to take up an EIA work as that is in direct conflict with other businesses of the organisation,” he said.
‘No opportunity’
Emphasising the “track record” of the company/agency selected to do the EIA, Mr. Thakker said the expert committee on ILR appointed by the government was not given an opportunity to apply its mind in the selection of the consultant for EIA studies even for the Ken-Betwa link, which is against its Terms of Reference (TOR) of the expert panel.
“If this committee is to do justice to the TOR given to it, it must get opportunity to apply its mind to issues of relevance…I urge the chairman to take urgent action to ensure that an inappropriate organisation like WAPCOS does not get EIA work for any river links, leave aside the two under discussion,” he said.
The expert committee was appointed after the United Progressive Alliance government dismantled the Task Force on the Inter-Linking of Rivers. While the Water Resources Secretary is the chairman, the committee has as members the Director-General of the National Water Development Agency, water expert Vijay Paranjpaye, waterman Rajinder Singh, Mala Kapoor, Former secretary Z. Hasan and Mr. Thakker, among others.
