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In November
2002, local communities violated by the Cashma Irrigation Project
have filed a request to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for investigation
of ADB Management's lack of compliance to ADB policies that have
caused violations and material damages to the Chashma area and local
communities.
In
response to the Inspection claims and the severe criticisms and
complaints about the project , the Government of Pakistan and the
ADB established the Grievance Redress and Settlement Committee (GRSC),
a so-called "problem-solving institution" established
by the Government of Pakistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB)
.The stated objective of the GRSC is to address issues of land acquisition,
resettlement, and compensation. ADB Management argued that the Inspection
will hinder the effective operations of the GRSC, and demanded that
the Inspection on CRBIP-III be denied.
The
Chashma Inspection Requesters and NGOs have argued that the since
the GRSC is an institutiion of the Pakistani Government and does
not address the ADB's responsibility/accountability regarding its
own mistakes, the GRSC should not interfere with the ADB Inspection
process. Furthermore, the legitimacy and effectiveness have been
questioned by the Chashma Inspection Requesters, local communities,
and NGOs, as it was established in a manner ignoring the right of
representation and participation of violated and affected local
communities, including women, and priviledging local elites. The
scope and manadate of the committe is also very limited and do not
cover a range of issues concerning adverse impacts on local livelihhods,
ecology and human rights violations. Besides the problems with the
process of establishing the GRSC and sebsequent design problems,
operational failures of the GRSC have been observed.
Iin
April 2003, however, the ADB decided to wait to start the investigation
under the Inspection Function to prioritize the operations of the
GRSC . The ADB also decided that investigation may start in August,
depending on the progress of the GRSC in August.
ADB
concluded in September 2003 that the GRSC has been working effectively,
despite of the fact that many local communities, local NGOs, and
Chashma Inspection Requesters have continued to denounce the GRSC
for its lack of legitimacy, transparency, and effectiveness. As
a result, Inspection will not start until late January 2004, while
local environment and people's livelihoods are continuously being
destroyed.
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The ADB has
a set of rules (policies and operational procedures) that the ADB
has the obligation to follow during the formulation and implemention
of the project. These rules are in place in order to ensure a standard,
including environmental and social, in ADB's operations. For example,
these rules require the ADB to provide information to the local
communities about the project concerned, incorporate the opinions
of the local communities into the design of the project, conduct
environmnetal and social assessment of the impacts of the project
and prepare mitigating measures, etc.
However,the
ADB has received numerous protests by local residents of its projects,
as it threatens the environment and the local people's livelihood
through the projects in various fields, ranging from construction
of dams, roads, and water treatment facilities, to privatization
of water services.
In same of these cases, social and environmental harms are due to
the ADB's violations of its own rules. "Inspection Function"
is a mechanism of the ADB, in which local communities harmed by
projects can request investigations regarding whether or not the
ADB has violated its own policies and procedures.So
far 8 Inspection claims have been filed but only two inspection
have been authorized by the ADB. Chashma Irrigation Project is the
second project which will go through inspection process. First inspection
case was Samut Prakarn Waste Water Management Project, Thailand.
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