 |
Kathmandu Monday June 26, 2000 Ahsad 12, 2057.
|
Rapti Barrage raises outcry
Approach Int’l Court : experts
By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, June 25 - Political leaders and
water resource experts today said that Nepal should go to the International Court of
Justice as India has not complied with international laws while constructing a barrage on
Rapti river, south of Banke district.
"The barrage over Rapti has created
adverse effects of flooding in the villages of Nepal, which straightaway violates
international laws and practices," said Hiranya Lal Shrestha, leader of CPN-ML at a
programme on the problems created by the dams along the border.
He was speaking at a weekly talk forum
organised by National Concerns Society. "The Indian government should either furnish
satisfactory explanations for the construction or Nepal should go to the International
Court," he said.
Shrestha said that the barrage should either
be "dismantled" or India should provide "reasonable compensation for all
the damages caused", adding "the inundation of the villages is a man-made
disaster made with the full knowledge of the consequences. It could have been
stopped".
On June 17, Foreign Affairs and Human Rights
Committee (FAHRC) of the parliament had said India had violated international law while
constructing the Laxmanpur barrage on the Rapti river. The report prepared by the
committee states that the construction affects five VDCs -- Holiya, Bethhani, Gangapur,
Fattepur, and Matehiya -- of Banke and that more than 15,000 locals in 33 villages could
be affected during the current monsoon season.
UN General Assembly Resolution on World
Charter of Nature, 1982, demands that States and other public authorities, international
organisations, individuals, groups or corporations "should ensure that activities
within their jurisdictions or control do not cause damage to the natural systems located
within other States or in areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction."
Govinda Bahadur Shah, MP and member of the
FAHRC who had visited the site said that India has violated the international law with the
construction of the edifice within 300 meters of the border.
This contradicts the international guideline
- which states that if the construction of any edifice within 8 kilometres of the border
affects another country - the affected country (in this case Nepal) must have given a go
ahead, and that has not happened.
The construction of the Laxmanpur dam on
Rapti river, which began in 1983 and completed in 1998, was undertaken by India in its
territory without considering the effects it would have on the Nepali side of the river in
Banke district.
Som Prasad Pandey, chairman of FAHRC said
that India had been making all decisions over the construction of the barrage without
consulting Nepal whereas "the direct effect of the construction has been on the
villages of Nepal, not India." "There is no other way but to dismantle the
construction if we are to save our villages. This, however, has never been discussed by
the government. The stance taken by the government over the matter till now is not strong
enough."
Water resource expert, Deepak Gyawali,
stressed on the need to look at the long-term effects of the dams before deciding to go
ahead with them. "The embankment technology itself is a wrong technology," said
Gyawali. "It provides short term relief but creates a tremendous problem of water
logging which throws the land out of production."
Gyawali said, "The problems that the
Laxmanpur barrage would create in Nepal is just a continuation of miseries of embankment
that India has been living with for the past 50 years."
Former Minister for Water Resources Pashupati
SJB Rana was of the opinion that only dialogue could settle the issue.
Only yesterday, a meeting between Nepali and
Indian irrigation officials had ended inconclusively after differences over a wide range
of water-related issues along the Indo-Nepal border, including the controversial afflux
bund constructed by India on Rapti river.
Other Stories
|
