Policy Director
As International Rivers' Policy Director and before, the coordinator of a Swiss NGO, I have advocated for human rights and the environment for more than 20 years. When I'm not at work, I spend time with my family, hike, and visit the opera. My favorite river is the Albula in the Swiss Alps.
“If you are interested in environmental public policy on a global scale, Peter Bosshard’s blog is the way to go,” the Policy Police recommends. Happy reading! You can also follow me on Twitter @PeterBosshard.
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The Vicious Circle of Corruption, Dams and Disaster
Wed, 09/10/2008 - 4:53pm
Kosi River Breaks Embankment In nature, water always flows downstream. In society, drinking and irrigation water flow to the rich and powerful, while waste water and floods flow to the poor. An important reason for this anomaly is corruption, which favors large, expensive projects over small-scale approaches and effective maintenance. My colleague Shannon Lawrence and I have documented this link between corruption and dam building in detail for the water sector in Pakistan. The recent disaster on the Kosi River illustrates how corruption – and not unexpected or larger-than-average floods – led to the breach of the river’s embankments, flooded out three million people and killed at least 2,000 people in Nepal and India. I just came across a highly informative interview with Dipak Gyawali, Nepal’s former Minister for Water Resources, in eKantipur.com. The following extensive quote from this article shows how corruption undermined maintenance of the embankments and brought about the disaster: Such is the racket of breaches that out of the 2.5 to 3 billion rupees spent annually by the Bihar government on construction and repair works, as much as 60 percent used to be pocketed by the politician-contractors-engineers nexus. There is a perfect system of percentages in which there is a share for everyone who matters, right from the minister to the junior engineer. The actual expenditure never exceeds 30 percent of the budgeted cost and after doling out the fixed percentages, the contractors are able to pocket as much as 25 percent of the sanctioned amount. A part of this they use to finance the political activities of their pet politicians and to get further projects sanctioned. Thus the cycle goes on. [The result is that...] the contractor's bills are paid without verifying them. The same lot for boulders and craters are shown as freshly purchased year after year and the government exchequer is duped of tens of millions. Many of the desiltation and repair and maintenance works shown to have been completed are never done at all and yet payments are made....So much is the income of the engineers from the percentages that the engineers do not bother to collect their salaries. (Fighting the Irrigation Mafia in Bihar, by Indu Bharati in the Economic and Political Weekly from Bombay in 1991, quoted by Dipak Gyawali in his book Water in Nepal/Rivers, Technology and Society, Zed Books, London and Himal Books, Kathmandu, 2001.) This is what I mean by “wrong conduct”. My understanding, based on information filtering out of Saptari and Sunsari and on local FM channels, is that local cadres of ruling political parties got wise to the corruption practiced from across the border and began to demand a share, which was difficult for the Bihari contractors to agree to because of the high rake-in demanded by their traditional political and civil servant bosses in Patna and higher up. There were, it seems, tough negotiations going on before the start of the monsoon season, but no agreement could be reached. No formal approach was made by the Koshi officials to the most India-friendly government in power in Nepal because the issue to be resolved was not doing the work but sharing the booty. Which is why the complaint that the contractors had come on August 8 to strengthen the embankment but were not allowed to, itself begs the question: how come you come to do the repair works (if that is what you wanted to do) in the middle of the monsoon and not in January? Ironically, the flood disaster on the Kosi has again led to calls for the construction of high dams upstream on the river, rather than for accountability measures that would prevent the existing river infrastructure from failing. In his interview with eKantipur.com, Gyawali elaborates why such a high dam would not address the flood problems of the Kosi. But corruption, dams and floods are a vicious cycle which happily feeds on itself.
Peter Bosshard is the policy director of International Rivers. His blog, Wet, Wild and Wonky,
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War over potable water looms in Davao
Backgrounder on the conflict between Davao City Water District and Hedcor, the country’s leading developer of run-of-water hydropower and an affiliate of the Aboitiz Group in re to a P6-billion hydroelectric project that will be tapping the same water source that DCWD is eyeing as its alternative water source.
The people of Davao was gripped revcently by great anticipation— or apprehension— on who will emerge winner in the battle of two giants over potable water, a natural resource that Davao City is known for having one of the best in the world.
For the Davao City Water District (DCWD), the future of the city’s water supply depends on the Tamugan-Panigan rivers, an alternative to the supply of potable water extracted from the Talomo-Lipadas Watershed now reaching the homes of 750,000 people or around 156,000 households.
The Tamugan-Panigan River is expected to produce about 200,000 cubic meter daily to service an additional 30,000 households in 25 villages of the second district. This could mean that current consumers will have better quality of service.DCWD officials assert that the river “is the only alternative water source that has the required quality, quantity and viability for the city’s long-term water supply development plan.”The same water source is also being considered by Hedcor, the country’s leading developer of run-of-water hydropower and an affiliate of the Aboitiz Group, as the site of a P6-billion hydroelectric project expected to generate 34 megawatts of electricity.That output is enough to help avert the looming power crisis in Mindanao which is expected to hit its critical period in 2009.Attractive projectHedcor’s presentation paper is attractive. It is peppered with benefits amounting to millions of pesos not only for the national and local governments but also waiting for the local communities to be “hit” by the project.The company intends to distribute electricity starting 2010.It will be paying the eight communities that will host the project—Wines, Tawan-Tawan, Suawan, Tambobong, Salaysay, Carmen, Cadalian and Tamayong—about P2 million to P3 million as sharing benefit, with P0.01 per kilowatt-hour every year from the first year of operation. Its four indigenous communities will be given P3 million as shares annually, apart from the land rentals expected to reach P1.8 million.Davao City will also get P5.4 million or 2 percent of the gross sales during the first year. Hedcor will also pay about P40 million in property tax and P3 million in business tax.The project will improve access roads and open new ones, and provide irrigation water, watershed management and barangay electrification.Memo of agreementIn January, Hedcor executives signed a memorandum of agreement with leaders of the host communities and the indigenous communities for the three run-of-river hydroelectric project.The company had started building a good relationship with the people in the eight villages in 2006, no wonder many of the village leaders favored its project over that of the DCWD.Datu Pedro Lagao, chief of the tribal group in Tambobong, said their approval to Hedcor’s project was based on the promised development and jobs. The project will create about 900 jobs, mostly for the local residents.But, according to the DCWD, the presence of Hedcor will “seriously threaten the city’s water supply … The hydropower plant will compromise the DCWD’s mandate to provide the most basic need of the populace—water.”The proposed hydropower plant of Hedcor will be built upstream of the infiltration gallery of the DCWD, or the upper portion of the Tamugan-Panigan River.Fears of drying upThe water district said Hedcor’s project could not coexist with that of the DCWD based on their original plans because the setup would dry up portions of the river vital to the volume needed by the DCWD’s concessionaires.Hedcor originally proposed to put up its plant above the infiltration gallery, at the junction of the two rivers at the lower portion of Barangay Tawan-Tawan. This would dry up a long stretch of 10.439 kilometers from the infiltration gallery to Hedcor’s hydroplant because the power firm will be diverting the flow of water to course through its weirs (dams).Hedcor will put up weirs from the upper reaches of the Tamugan and Panigan rivers, which will meet at a conveyance box junction at 530 meters above sea level, or 130 meters higher than the infiltration gallery of the DCWD. From that point, a single weir of more than 2 km will be built to end at a Hedcor pondage, which is connected by another 4.6-km weir leading to the Hedcor power house and switch.“This setup will dry up vital portions of these rivers, which will lead to both immediate and long-term adverse effects on our project,” a DCWD paper said.DCWD, said the plan of Hedcor might seriously deplete water supply in the area, affecting the public access to potable water. She said the city’s future water source would be compromised.Water permit, but no ECCDCWD criticized the granting of a water permit for the Tamugan-Panigan rivers to the hydroelectric firm by the National Water Resources Board (NWRB). The permit, however, is pending after the DCWD raised a protest. The Environmental Management Bureau has refused to give the power firm an environmental compliance certificate (ECC). Hedcor officials were not happy. They said the permit is the only a ticket for them to get started.“We don’t understand it. The policy is clear. We cannot get a water permit if we cannot get the ECC, but the EMB is saying that we must get the water permit first before they issue the ECC. It’s really confusing us. You see, if we can’t get the permit, we cannot build the plant,” Hedcor officials said.EMB regional director Metudio Turbella, in letter to Hedcor said the issue of water rights must be settled first by the NWRB. “It pertains to the use of surface waters of Panigan-Tamugan Rivers. The same surface water is also the lifeline of the proposed hydropower project of Hedcor. Clearly, under the principle of primary jurisdiction, the NWRB is the proper agency to rule on the issue of water rights,” he said.Officials of the DCWD, said the two rivers would certainly solve the water supply problem of Davao but not the imminent power crisis.“The problem of Davao City is not only the delivery of water to the homes of the people but also the supply of the water that must be delivered to the people. The water here is not the solution to the power crisis but it will solve the water crisis,” Braganza said.Groundwater sourceRight now, over 99 percent of the water consumed by the city comes from groundwater extracted from the Talomo-Lipadas Watershed. With a daily extraction of 212,000 cubic meters from 50 production wells, sustainability is in danger.sorry if i pposted this instead of commenting on the article in blog but i guess this is the only way i can send this urgent matter to your attention.....