Why agency like WAPCOS cannot be given EIA work for river link proposals

Expert opposes nomination of in-house agency for river links study

A member of the Expert Committee of the Inter-Linking of Rivers (ILR) has
opposed the government’s move to nominate its in-house agency for conducting
an environment impact assessment (EIA) for the Par-Tapi-Narmada and
Damanganga-Pinjal links.

Seeking “urgent attention” before the next ILR meeting on March 5, the
expert, Himanshu Thakker, who heads the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers
and People, questioned the awarding of the work to m/s Water and Power
Consultancy Services (India) Pvt. Limited (WAPCOS), a government enterprise
under the aegis of the Ministry of Water Resources.

The norm is to hire an independent agency for EIA to avoid a conflict of
interest and get an independent and competent assessment.

Quoting from the discussion papers for the forthcoming meeting, Mr. Thakker
has written to the Water Resources Secretary and the chairman of the
Committee of Environmentalists, Social Scientists and other Experts on
Interlinking of Rivers voicing his concern.

“The work of the EIA study should be an independent assessment of the
environment impact of the proposals, and the study is supposed to include a
‘No project’ option, listing of ‘unacceptable impacts,’ and the possible
option of concluding that the project is ‘not viable.’ Such independent
assessment cannot be done by an in-house organisation like WAPCOS, which is
a part of the same house as the Water Resources Ministry and the National
Water Development Agency,” Mr. Thakker said.

According to Mr. Thakker, WAPCOS has done surveys and investigations
justifying river links and other such projects in the past.

“It has done such studies for river linking projects [the Pranhita Chavella
link, for example] for Maharashtra and Gujarat, including projects like the
Damanganga and Sardar Sarovar that have direct involvement in projects under
discussion. An organisation in the business of doing such works cannot be
entrusted to take up an EIA work as that is in direct conflict with other
businesses of the organisation,” he said.

*‘No opportunity’*

Emphasising the “track record” of the company/agency selected to do the EIA,
Mr. Thakker said the expert committee on ILR appointed by the government was
not given an opportunity to apply its mind in the selection of the
consultant for EIA studies even for the Ken-Betwa link, which is against its
Terms of Reference (TOR) of the expert panel.

“If this committee is to do justice to the TOR given to it, it must get
opportunity to apply its mind to issues of relevance…I urge the chairman to
take urgent action to ensure that an inappropriate organisation like WAPCOS
does not get EIA work for any river links, leave aside the two under
discussion,” he said.

The expert committee was appointed after the United Progressive Alliance
government dismantled the Task Force on the Inter-Linking of Rivers. While
the Water Resources Secretary is the chairman, the committee has as members
the Director-General of the National Water Development Agency, water expert
Vijay Paranjpaye, waterman Rajinder Singh, Mala Kapoor, Former secretary Z.
Hasan and Mr. Thakker, among others.

Gargi Parsai

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