Corporate houses will own rivers: Medha Patkar

18 JUNE 2007: Guwahati

Narmada Bachao Andolan-fame social activist Medha Patkar today warned that if the proposed projects for linking the rivers were to be materialized, ownership of the rivers would go to the corporate houses. She also alleged that the planners of the country had been distorting people’s priorities for development planning. Patkar, also the convenor of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), was speaking to The Assam Tribune on the sidelines of the two-day national dialogue on environment and sustainable development organized by the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti in the city since yesterday.Explaining her assertions, she said that while planning water resources projects drinking water should be the first priority. Even in agricultural sector, priority should be attached to one crop protection. Wherever there is drought, we must provide water for one crop protection. But rules for such distributive justice are not formulated.Many states are changing their water policies to attach higher priority to industrial use of water than the use of this resource in agriculture. This is why, hydro power is getting the top most priority wherever water resources are plenty, she said.Similarly, though ground water recharge should get the top most priority so far as ground water is concerned, we are allowing the water to run away. The bottling of water by big capital is also given higher priority and the bottling plants are given subsidies. Each of the bottling plants is drawing between 5 lakh and 25 lakh litres of water per day.The rivers are also given to the corporate houses. If the interlinking of rivers comes true, corporate houses will be given the right over our rivers as they will invest for the projects that require an estimated amount of around Rs 5,60,000 crore, she said.On the present development activities in the country, she said that much of them were based on corruption and misuse of resources. However, she clarified that resources should not exclusively mean financial resources and these should include also the natural resources. Natural resources are a kind of capital. This capital is misused in the sense that instead of fulfilling the need of the people, it is used to satiate the greed of the elite class, which includes the politicians, the bureaucrats, the contractors and the corporate houses. Though there are alternative paths to use these resources, priorities are distorted, she said.Later, addressing a press conference at the Guwahati Press Club, she said that Government’s development plans in NE region had been adding to the sufferings of the region’s people. Not the Armed forces alone, the Government’s plans are also creating havoc for the people here, she claimed, even as she demanded repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act.The people here are opposing the mega dams proposed in the region, as, while conceiving them they were not consulted and their informed consent was not taken when some of them were implemented. But the projects are pushed ahead, she said, adding, the region’s own power demand would be around 7,000 MW at the most.She also suggested that going by the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams, water from the catchments should be tapped before its reaching the major rivers. This will make mega dams and the river interlinking projects redundant if at all the Government has the resolve to save the people from floods, she said.She, however, observed that measures to control flood control and erosion in the region had been getting less priority from the state Governments of the region and also from the Union Government.The latest move to conduct a seismic survey in the Brahmaputra riverbed for mineral oil exploration betrays further the attitude of the Union Government towards the people of the region. This survey will affect the entire system of the Brahmaputra and also the ecology and people of the valley, she said.While dealing with the natural resources of the NE region there should be a holistic approach and this approach should be sensitive to both ecology and the human beings, she asserted.Referring to the proposed creation of three more towns to expand the Guwahati metropolitan area, she said that shopping malls and highways should not be the yardstick to measure development. The development approach should also take into consideration the issues like how many people are going to be displaced and how many people are getting their livelihood affected by such projects. But the draft master plan for the city has not taken into consideration all these issues, she said, adding, displacement had increased by five to ten times in the country during the past few years. Flood and erosion expert Prof D K Mishra also spoke on the occasion.