SIPHRO

Concerned with the certain impacts the Tipaimukh Hydro Electric Project would have on the indigenous Hmar people and others who will be affected by the proposed Mega Dam, Sinlung Indigenous People Human Rights Organisation (SIPHRO) makes its stand clear on the issue of Tipaimukh Dam after an intimate analysis of the indigenous people at stake whose land and resources would be placed at the altar of the Dam. SIPHRO has made its stand clear as it feels the need to communicate to governments, private sector, civil society, and the affected people and to the diverse activists concerned with Dams.

SIPHRO immensely feels the need to address the serious issue of the proposed project as it is essential in any attempt to reach an adequate analysis of the basic systemic changes needed to achieve equitable and sustainable development and to give a pointer towards challenging the forces that would lead to the marginalization of indigenous people from their ancestral land through the imposition of unjust technologies like the proposed Mega-Dam in Tipaimukh.

1. Dams, today, stand to represent the symptom of the larger failure of the unjust and destructive dominant development model. Globally the failure of large dams to provide their claimed benefits and poor performance needs to be recognized and accepted. There is no ground for optimism on the feasibility of improving the poor and inhumane performance of dams as well as mitigating their impacts. A major question will continue to be the humane and just treatment of Hmar indigenous peoples of Tipaimukh and others if the dam is constructed. The rosy compensation and relief and rehabilitation packages and measures will never account for the loss that the indigenous peoples could not even imagine today. Moreover, they do not even have the idea to imagine the size of the proposed project and the impact that will be inevitable. The project, therefore, is an immature model where the indigenous people are left in the lurch.

2. The Government of India’s policy and experience on Relief, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RRR) is marred with failure, which, therefore, cannot be accepted in any manner. This policy has been employed as a tool to push the indigenous people out of their own land. The RRR and the promises attached to it cannot be the ground for providing the same, when it has failed on all fronts.

3. There is no equity, transparency, accountability, participatory decision-making and consent of the indigenous Hmar people on the proposed Tipaimukh project. This will go a long way to hinder human development, which, though, is not the objective of the proposed dam.

4. North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) and the Government of Manipur ought to know that the biggest stakeholders in the case of the proposed project are the indigenous Hmar people. As such, they cannot be left out in anything that concerns their land, rivers, forest, resources, and their future. They should be practically involved in any process of decision-making with equal status to other stakeholders, if there is any. The biggest stakeholder, who, today, constitutes the marginalized, poor, and vulnerable group, should not be neglected in anything that concerns them, their land, rivers, forest, culture and resources. The State actors, dam builders and other non-state actors should incorporate the rights of the same people into any of their plans that involve their land, forest and rivers. In doing so, they should consider the stakeholder rights, land rights and the broader human rights.

5. SIPHRO is convinced that the proposed Tipaimukh project is being pushed to settle powerful vested interests, which is represented by the State as well as profit-making Multi National Companies (MNCs). Understanding the under layered interest of these actors negates the need to negotiate in the pursuit to emphasise on certain priorities and primacies. The secure existence of the indigenous Hmar people and others, alive with their identity, culture, traditions, land, forest, rivers and other social, cultural and environmental parameters ought to have a priority weightage over the technical and financial aspects in any decision-making process.

6. The larger context of national and global political and economic trends that usually affect decisions in the water and energy sector shall not be employed to trample the inalienable human rights of the indigenous people in whose land the project is proposed.

7. No undue legitimacy should be granted to corporations, financial agencies, and other actors inside the land, forest and rivers of the indigenous Hmar people. The simplicity, ignorance and innocence of the indigenous people should not be exploited at any cost.

8. Tipaimukh Mega-Dam project should be centered on the interests of the indigenous people, who are the traditional owners and dwellers of the land, rivers and natural resources.

9. Besides the need for a pre, prior and informed consent on the prospect of a destructive structure that will alienate the indigenous people from their ancestral land, there should also be a mass education and awareness campaign at the grassroots level in Tipaimukh in the interest of enlightening the people about the effects of the dam. This should be done by employing comparative and case studies of the human and environment impact of dams in other parts of the country and in other countries as well. A pre, prior and informed consent without educating the people at the grassroots level would be a gross injustice to their existence as a people of the land and a negation of their citizenship rights. The ignorance, innocence, poverty and systematic deprivation of the people and their land should not be exploited with monetary and materialistic promises to lure them into accepting a detrimental mega project whose scale and inevitable impact the Tipaimukh people are incapable of gauging.

10. SIPHRO questions the logic and rationale behind conducting public hearings in Vairengte (Mizoram) and other places outside Tipaimukh when the dam is proposed at Tipaimukh (Manipur). The ongoing exercise of “Public Hearing” is a vain attempt as it deliberately misses out the people who will be affected by the mega-dam. The Hmar indigenous people of Tipaimukh have not been involved, in any significant way, in formal discussions or consultations related to the proposed mega-dam that is planned on their land.

11. The principles of common, but differentiated responsibilities, equity, social justice and sustainable development should remain the key principles underpinning all the negotiations, policies and programs on the project. The human rights-based approach to development and the ecosystem approach should guide the design and implementation of any structure that is projected in Tipaimukh.

12. The promotion of large-scale technologies or large scale hydropower technologies should be discouraged in Tipaimukh. SIPHRO strongly upholds that any plans to build Large Hydro Dams should take into consideration the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams (WCD). Indigenous peoples in different parts of the world have already disappeared due to sea-water rise and erosion and have also become environmental refugees due to big dams. Displacement and any forms of exclusion of the indigenous peoples from their lands, forests, rivers, resources and their rights to these should be avoided at all costs. The indigenous people of Tipaimukh should not be allowed to experience the same plights in their ancestral land. Further, SIPHRO stands to safeguard the indigenous people from any forces that may result in disempowerment and division of the same people.

13. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples should serve as the key framework in the formulation of plans for development and should be considered in all processes related to the proposed multi-purpose project in Tipaimukh.

14. SIPHRO strongly feels the need to reform existing laws of land tenure system, which discriminate the collective rights of indigenous people in their land.

15. SIPHRO feels the urgent need to provide education, policy support, technical assistance and funds to the indigenous people in Tipaimukh to undertake their own mitigation measures in the areas of building small-scale energy systems, biodiversity conservation, managing streams and rivers, improving livelihood, etc. They should gain benefits from the environmental services derived from their land and resources. Processes and mechanisms for the valuation of these environmental services, and methods that allow them to get adequate benefits should be developed jointly with the indigenous people who are the traditional dwellers of the land. Besides, there are many other options and alternatives to explore in the quest of developing Tipaimukh. Big Dam is not the solution.

16. Hmar indigenous people share an intricate relationship with their lands, environment, territories and resources. This relationship is the very basis of their economic, social and cultural systems, and their identities as a people. By virtue of these distinct characteristics, the proposed mega-dam would affect them in a particularly adverse manner. The proposed project introduces a threatened status for the indigenous people whose future will be uncertain if the project is initiated.

17. Rather than having to tolerate unauthorised intrusions upon their ancestral lands, indigenous people of Tipaimukh will be compelled to assert their rights to give, withdraw and withhold prior and informed consent, if there is any.

18. SIPHRO is convinced that NEEPCO has no clear internal safeguard policies. Despite that, it is doggedly engaged in financing and building a project that will have significant negative environmental, cultural, political and livelihood impacts. The impact of the project will be most felt by the indigenous Hmar people, their culture, language, identity, belief system and demography that has its ancestral roots in Tipaimukh. The proposed mega project would submerge productive farmland, forest and riverine habitat; affecting the entire people and their way of life that will leave the indigenous people more impoverished, marginalized, exploited, deprived and vulnerable than before. Besides, it will also dewater hundreds of kilometres of river downstream from the dam. Moreover, NEEPCO has no obligation to adhere to the strategies for poverty alleviation and socio-economic development of the people who will be affected.

19. NEEPCO failed to make public to the indigenous people of Tipaimukh the “demonstrable acceptance” of the proposed project. It also did not make any participatory reviews of the proposed project, despite the numerous “public hearings” that it has conducted outside Tipaimukh. Moreover, NEEPCO did not make public its assessment on such issues as dam safety and possible decommissioning.

20. The Government of Manipur and NEEPCO should immediately stop marketing and the Tipaimukh multipurpose project as a model dam project and panacea to Tipaimukh’s’ development woes. It is certain that the project, instead of alleviating poverty, will have severe impacts on the lives and livelihoods of the indigenous people. Besides, in a State like Manipur, known for its notoriety and corruption, financial mismanagement and lack of transparency and political will, there is little evidence to support the promises. How can a constituency that has been neglected and deprived since the birth of the country and statehood be expected to develop through the construction of a Mega-Dam, which is known for its potential destructive character? Moreover the political climate in Manipur works against the possible success for such a plan. The experience of the Hmar indigenous people with the Government of Manipur has been one marred by untold marginalization and deprivation. Therefore the present situation of Tipaimukh is more than enough to speak for any promises made with the proposed project. When the Government of Manipur completely failed to exhibit any serious commitment to addressing the serious plights of the Hmar indigenous people in Tipaimukh in the face of gross human rights violations, absence of public distribution system and governance, absence of infrastructure, etc., it is beyond the expectation of the Hmar indigenous people to expect the same government or NEEPCO to make a commitment to address the project’s broader social, economic and environmental objectives.

21. SIPHRO firmly opines that the one-sided project which is proposed in Tipaimukh requires a collaborative study by using the WCD Report and focusing on the interests and rights of the indigenous people. There is an urgent need to revisit, whether or not the proposed project that will result in building a mega dam is necessary in the light of the WCD recommendations and the challenges of the indigenous people. If a joint study clearly and unambiguously illustrates that the dam is needed, SIPHRO would be compelled to look for the best option available for the indigenous people, their land and resources and support it. Otherwise, it will always stand to address the numerous shortcomings in the interest of the indigenous people, their ancestral land and inalienable rights.

22. In conclusion, the proposed project is immature. The process for choosing it ignores both the indigenous people and the recommendations of the WCD. SIPHRO is convinced that there are better ways towards development and helping the poor get access to water and electricity. It urges the State actors as well as non-state actors to identify and pursue other better, and more equitable and sustainable alternatives.

Sincerely,

Lalremlien Neitham
Secretary, SIPHRO
(March 29, 2008)