The South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) has demanded an urgent review of plans of big dams, hydropower projects and interlinking of rivers that adversely affect aquatic biodiversity and livelihood.
These issues were discussed at a side event on ‘Impact of dams on biodiversity: Socio-ecological dimensions in changing climate’, organised by SANDRP and 5 partner organisations Himdhara (Himachal Pradesh), Himal Prakriti ( Uttarakhand), Samvardhan (Maharashtra), River Basin Organization (Assam) and International Rivers (India) at Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) currently underway at Hyderabad.
Experts called to mandate cumulative impact assessment whenever more than three projects are proposed on any river and appealed to the government to come out with a policy and law for protection of rivers.
Himanshu Thakkar of SANDRP explained that the 1992 CBD at Rio, had agreed that conservation, sustainable use and access and sharing benefits for the local communities could have been a boon for riverine biodiversity.
However, CBD has been of no help to Indian rivers, riverine biodiversity and dependent communities. On the contrary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, an another UN convention, says hydropower projects of all sizes have severe adverse impacts on biodiversity and related livelihoods.
“Thus, while one UN convention is supposed to be working for protection of biodiversity, another is incentivising destruction of biodiversity and the two do not seem to talk to each other,” said Thakkar.
Similarly, India’s decade-old National Biodiversity Act 2002 has been of no help for rivers and related biodiversity. In India there has not been any credible enviro-socio-cultural impact assessment of projects in the context of riverine biodiversity. Over 60 experts present at the CBD made following recommendations.
The Way Forward
* Amend EIA notifications to require that all large dams, hydro projects over 1 MW capacity and also projects impacting aquatic biodiversity will need to do impact assessment in consultation with locals.
* Include rivers in definition of wetlands in the Wetlands Rules (2010) and declare specific rivers as ‘no go’ protected zones in each state and in each ecological zone.
* Formally protect rivers which are socially and culturally important and sacred to indigenous communities.
* Review operation of existing dams under those construction to ensure adequate freshwater flow all round the year.
* Stop certifying clean development mechanism (CDM) hydro projects as ‘sustainable development projects’ without impact assessment and mandatory participatory process that requires prior, informed, consent from the gram sabhas.
2012 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.