Overwhelming negative response towards the World Bank-sponsored Flood management plan to be implemented in Bangladesh, saw the government and concerned authorities vying with each other to take a pro-people stand
Prioritising people
MUCH water has flown under the bridge
ever since the Flood Action Plan (FAP)
- jointly developed by the World Bank
(WB) and the Bangladesh government
- was launched in 1988 in Bangladesh.
The FAP can be fruitfully implemented
only if its coordinators succeed in
involving the people: this verdict was
reached at the two -day meeting of the
donor agencies organised in Dhaka
from December 3-4, 1995. The FAP was
conceived in 1985 primarily to protect
Bangladesh from the devastating annual
onslaughts of floods. But it has been
dogged by controversies since its inception, with a steadily swelling rank of
detractors accusing it of "ignoring the
knowledge and active participation of
the local people". And in the last one
year, the issue has snowballed.
On November 25, the town of
Tangail in Bangladesh reverberated with
slogans and protest calls raised by a
3,000-odd-strong crowd brandishing
banners and placards. They hailed from
Shibpur, Bhagil, Charabari and myriad
other villages surrounding Tangail,
vehemently protesting against the FAP.
They called themselves the "victims" of
the FAP-20 Compartmentalisation
Pilot Project which has caused severe
waterlogging and spelt doom for
Bangladesh's farmers.
The farmers, backed by front-running environmental groups and prominent peasants' associations, insist that
Bangladesh does not need "flood control" programmes, but requires a well-
integrated and farsighted water management policy. And FAP actually fails to
meet these requirements. The agitators
claim that the plan ignores local traditional knowledge and instead, relies on
totally unsuitable "hi-tech" solutions
like building embankments and barrages, which could cause irreparable
damage to the standing crops, agricultural lands and the nation's environment on the whole.
The Tangail rally, however, was particularly significant because it was
organised on the eve of the fourth and
the final FAP conference in Dhaka, on
November 30 and December 2. Planned
by the Flood Plan Coordination
Organisation (FPCO) that includes
representatives of both the WB and the
government, the conference provided a
platform for holding discussions on the
"next step" that the government may
propose after the FAP. The Khaleda Zia
administration had, in early September,
officially adopted the final report of
the FAP, which has now been renamed
as Bangladesh Water and Flood
Management Strategy.
The Bank- coordinated FAP was
launched by 15 donor countries and
agencies, after Bangladesh experienced
what has been described as "one of the
worst floods in living memory" in 1988,
when 53 out of the country's 64 districts
were deluged by floods. FAP supporters
insisted that the scheme would help
tame the country's rivers,
saving lives and dramatically boosting
food production.
The FAP'S first draft emerged in
October 1994, after a nearly five-year
phase of studies costing us $50 million - only to be hit by a barrage of strident criticism by the Coalition of
Environmental NGOS (CEN)-led environmental lobby which comprised of front-running organisations like the
Bangladesh Centre for Advanced
Studies (BCAS). The report made a list of
65 priority projects including six studies
to be implemented over a period of
10 years at a cost of US $2.5 billion.
And the entire money, informed the
donors, would be spent on building
embankments along the two sides of the
major rivers of the nation in order to
tame them.
What the anti-FAP campaigners
found particularly galling was that the
common people, whose lives are intricately linked with these rivers, were
completely ignored. The farmers, fisher-people, and the landless poor, who have
the best first-hand knowledge about
floods and their repurcussions, were not
consulted by the WB at any stage of the
FAP. To bring forth the views and opinions of these people, who felt that floods
in normal years actually enhanced soil
fertility, the BCAS, in collaboration with
Panos - an international information
service - launched a book titled Rivers
of Life, in June 1994.
FAP-baiters had, by now, succeeded
in garnering international support. A
Dutch FAP platform was set up by NOVIB,
the Dutch NGO, and a few other groups.
Together, they are strongly lobbying the
Dutch government - one of the largest
stakeholders in the FAP-20 project in
Tangail.
But shaken by the swelling ranks of
anti-FAP activists, the WB proposed
intensive surveys in Bangladesh. A five-
member independent mission fielded
by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) reviewed the report,
and suggested that "there should be
more debates" on the FAP and stated that
prominent people's representatives who
are up in arms against the WB'S Moves,
should be invited to present their opinions before the government.
Thus, the final draft of the FAP, now
referred to as the Strategy Paper, came
into being in March 1995. Even the
staunchest critics of FPCO grudgingly
admitted that it was a distinct improvement over the last one. It was obvious
that the overwhelmingly negative
response of the people's groups had
influenced the FAP-strategists to a considerable extent.
The paper strongly emphasised the
need to prepare an integrated water
management plan for Bangladesh. It
also proposed the establishment of environmental and research centres in FAP
regions for conducting intensive
research on biodiversity conservation
and surface and ground water management. It came up with some concrete
schemes to develop people's participation through "regular interface with
beneficiaries and the other interested
public in the thanas or sub-districts". "It
is a victory of the advocacy campaigns of
the NGO's," raved Saleemul Huq, executive director of the BCAS.
But Huq's colleagues at the CEN were
still not convinced. The CEN held a
meeting on October 21, 1995, and
issued a joint statement on the FAP
report. While acknowledging that the
Strategy Paper is far more progressive
than the one that was callously imposed
upon the farmers and fisherfolk of
Bangladesh last October, the NGOs
insisted that an independent evaluation
of the FAP should be conducted immediately. Furthermore, all FAP operations
should be suspended till such evaluation
is complete and conclusive. And most
importantly, the joint statement
stressed that peoples participation
should be ensured at all levels of planning and implementation of the water
resources management scheme.
In a determined bid to drive home
their message, the CEN workers organised the People's Conference on
November 27, in Dhaka, two days
before the FAP meeting was scheduled to
take place. About 350 people from different FAP sectors like Tangail,
Gaibandha, and other villages assembled at the venue. They were joined by
representatives of the donor agencies
like the World Bank and the UNDP. The
FPCO consultants, water sector specialists and academicians were also present
in the conference in full strength. "It
was an extremely vibrant meeting,"
raved Dwijen Mallik of the BCAS, who
has been closely following the issue. The
concerned NGOs vociferously criticised
the FAP, saying it would remain a "death
trap" unless the steps suggested by them
were adopted. They also insisted that
they be allowed to present two papers
on Environmental and People's
Participation in the technical sessions of
the FAP conferences.
The NGO Conference, that was primarily designed to influence the -donors,
was a resounding success. Not only did
the Fpco accept the suggestion of presenting the two papers, the FAP confer-
ence itself went overwhelmingly in
favour of the people. From the Prime
Minister of Bangladesh to the representatives of donor agencies, all the delegates literally vied with each other to
take a pro-people stand. "The UNDP Will
hold back funds for the pilot projects
unless priority is given to people's views
and participation," declared Eimi
Watanabe, resident representative of the
UNDP in Bangladesh.
Begurn Khaleda Zia's statement also
followed the NGO line. She announced
that her administration would evolve an
integrated water resource mangement
strategy not just to concentrate on flood
control, but to focus on the "optimum
use of water resources for sustainable
development and economic growth".
Enlisting the support of the country's
people would be one of the primary
tasks of her government, she stressed.
The views expressed by Pierre
Landell Mill, World Bank mission chief,
echoed the same feelings. "A national
water resource management plan will
achieve results in Bangladesh only if it
takes into account vital issues like environmental concerns and povery alleviation schemes," he said. Presently, the
anti-FAP camp seems to have won the
first round of the battle. But experts like
Dwijen Mallik point out that it is too
early to rejoice, for, victory will come
only when "what has been put down on
paper is put to practice as well".
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