Below is a response to the invitation letter from the Chairperson of the Grievance Redress and Settlement Committee (GRSC) to the Chashma Inspection Requesters in which he invited the requesters to hold a meeting with the GRSC on 22 July, 2002.

Subject: Invitation from the Grievance Redress and Settlement Committee (GRSC)

Dear Members of the Grievance Redress and Settlement Committee,

Thank you very much for inviting the Chashma Inspection Requesters to appear before the Grievance Redress and Settlement Committee (GRSC). It is not, however, possible for us to appear before the members of the GRSC because of a variety of reasons. Why should we appear before the members of the GRSC? Neither we are witnesses, nor the GRSC is the standard and formal court. We believe and have been reiterating it since long time that the people who are sufferers and violated should have primary role in deciding-making process. Simply reducing them into the awful category of witness is in fact another violation imposed upon them through the apparatus and process of law itself. What does it implicate is that the GRSC is not only the product of this politics of law but its working and decisions should also reflect it.

What is this politics of law? Like typical politics, it requires financial investment. Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved the grant of approximately $3 million to finance the salaries and activities of the GRSC members. How can we believe that ADB consultants who are receiving fat salaries to perform prescribe duties are independent and their integrity is beyond any questioning. Similarly, the members of the GRSC representing various executing agencies (EAs) are salaried staff and are thus directly and indirectly accountable to the government for their actions. Even the members from the district governments are also paid and are part and parcel of larger government system.

Majority of the government members of the GRSC are directly responsible for the sufferings of local communities and violations committed in the process of decision-making. If you visit the project field areas, you would find dreadful stories how the staff of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) cheated local communities and made false promises. You would come across the evidences of the brutality and sheer force that was used against powerless and poor local communities who demanded nothing but justice and realization of their rights. They might be prepared to forgive it but they are not ready to forget it. Ok, come to the present. What is happening with regard to the compensation of land? Each village will tell you how they are asked and compelled give to bribe the land revenue staff in order to get their lawful but already low land compensation. Many of them have now become landless because of illegal massive land acquisition. You will not to do any hard labor to find how the staff of the Provincial Irrigation Department is asking bribe from poor villagers to sanction sump pumps in the low lying distributaries in the project area. All these officials who are directly and indirectly responsible for these sufferings and violations are yet part of the GRSC. How can we expect that they are going to vote against themselves? Primary concern of the law should be the excavation of truth and delivery of justice. Can the violators of law fulfill this universal requirement of the law?

Sufferings? This year, thousands of farmers in Makwal Kalan and Haeero Union Council have not ploughed and cultivated their lands. Why? For they have had to suffer the loss of more than Rs.500 million last year because of the project-induced flooding in the riverine belt. They have now little courage as well as resources to bear such losses this year. If you visit Mor Jhangi village in the riverine belt, you would find the excessive water of canal distributary ponding all around the village. Villagers have spent hundered thousands rupees to construct temporary protection bund in order to save their homes from the project induced flooding. There is no account of the losses in terms of land, agriculture produce, mobility, health etc. The villagers in the riverine belt are now sandwiched between the project induced flooding and the destruction of the Indus River. You would be told in the riverine belt how the flow patterns of the Indus River have been greatly changed because of the continuous silt deposition of the floodwater in that area. The Indus River have now started to erode its right bank and thousands acres of land have already been completely lost in this process. Most importantly, such is not an isolated place and event. More than fifty thousand people are experiencing this destruction without any hope in future. The members of the GRSC can easily find and observe such destruction and sufferings all along the riverine belt of the Indus River. It is even hard to think what will happen with these villages after massive water logging which is likely to happen in near future.

Sufferings? The village of Jadewala in the west side of the main canal is now deserted place wherein the joy and celebration of life was at once in its full blossom. If you now visit that village, you will come across mere the remains of rooms without any ceiling. It looks as some ghosts inflicted destruction on this village. These ghosts are no one else but high paid ADB consultants and engineers who once thought that the village will be flooded because of the main canal and the people in the village should, therefore, forever abandon their place of birth, identity, and joy. Never in the known history that area experienced any flooding, nor it is expected to occur in the imagined future. It was only the mistake of the official record that produced such dreadful imagination and thus inflicted sufferings and destruction. But, it is not the end of this sad story. The people of Jhangi are now walled against that imagined flooding and are thus suffering a variety of problems.

Let us leave the sufferings of these villages. Let us leave the reality how the people in Jhangi are facing problems in terms of mobility and drainage. But, should we also forget how about Rs.200 million was wrongly spent to provide protection against the floods that will never come in that area. Should we also forget what happened and is still happening with the village of Katehrewala? They have been sentenced to forever live in prison like conditions. The walls of flood embankments are so closed to their houses that it is impossible for them to view freely. The living rooms are flooded in rainy season because no drainage was imagined at the time of designing the embankments. There is no privacy for them because the flood embankments are now being used as common road in the area. The elders complain that it is now difficult for them to climb up and down the embankments. There is no space left for the construction of an additional room as it was thought no population growth would occur in this village. Now, take up the example of the Sokkar village. During 2001, it was flooded thrice because of wrong project designing and implementation. More than 80 houses were demolished and one person lost his life. As usual, flood protection embankments are constructed to save this village. In our view, this village is just waiting to receive its ultimate fate that is burying in the watery grave. The people in the Sokkar village rightfully believe that the flood protection embankments are bound to fail. These are bound to fail because the Nature will inevitably take its revenge in the due course against what is done with it.

You tell us in your letter that the terms of reference of the Committee does not contemplate the matter pertaining to the failure of the project technical design and we should be, therefore, constrained in taking up these issues. It is not merely the technical design that bothers us. We are concerned with the Nature and Ecology, which has been greatly manipulated and altered through mindless and hyper scientific imagination and subsequent wrong engineering interventions. For ADB consultants and engineers, the Nature and Ecology might be an indispensable challenge to be overcome. Nonetheless, the people of Damaan are of the contrary opinion. They have learnt from their centuries old experience that they need to respect the Nature and follow its principles as much as possible. They have learnt it not from any mediation, nor through the scientific abstract knowledge. They have learnt the mystery of the Nature and Ecology through their concrete experiences and simple wisdom. They have learnt that floodwater is bound to change its course and will thus render the costly flood protection works i.e. super-passages, flood carrier channels, etc., not only irrelevant but destructive as well. They know that the massive silt deposition as caused by the main canal will ultimately bring the change in the geography and make their settlements further insecure and prone to flooding. I was a small child when my father raised about 30 feet high earthen platform and then constructed over it our house. He was very much afraid of the flooding. Now, our house is lying low the adjacent fields. Even our colonial masters were aware of this fact when they write in the Gazetteer of the Dera Ismail Khan (1883-84) that" Village 40 or 50 years old often lie quite a hollow, and the fields outside being on a level with the roofs of the houses; but sooner and later a flood comes, which breaks the protecting embankments and drown the peoples". Now imagine the grave flooding threat after the construction of the main canal and massive obstruction it created in the natural courses of the floodwater. Should we not be bothered about it? Should it not be a matter of our concern that the majority of the super-passages are wrongly designed and thus don't allow the floodwater to safely pass through them? Should we remain irrelevant from the fact that most of the flood carrier channels are not constructed at right places? But it is not possible for us. It is impossible for us not to think and talk about the distribution canals that are incapable to convey the irrigation water to minors because of visible design wrongs. We believe that the wrong technical design is responsible for many of our losses and damages and should be part of any investigation and redress process.

You tell us that we need to pinpoint exact type of grievances, losses and how these can be mitigated. Our grievances are of diverse nature and losses are almost countless. Our damages range from the loss of free and fertile floodwater, agricultural land, houses, and rich biodiversity to the loss of community networks, graveyards, market linkages and deteriorating health. Most importantly, we have lost our destiny and freedom. These are now the state institutions that have the control over our everyday life. Much of our losses are not quantifiable and unable to mitigate and redress. The losses that are quantifiable require thorough social and environmental impact assessment. This is what we demanded from ADB Board Inspection Committee and the Government of Pakistan that they needed to ensure the full social and environmental impact assessment prior to any grievance redress and settlement process. Nonetheless, our demand was turned down and the GRSC was established without having proper and systematic documentation of losses and damages.

Lastly, there are special reasons behind the decision to disengage from current grievance redress and settlement process. Our past experiences instruct us that ADB and EAs had always wrongly used and manipulated our sincere and constructive engagements with them. We have not only been told bundle of lies and thus misguided but were also refused to give access to fundamental and primary information pertaining to the Project. You might be aware that the establishment of the GRSC is also the product of such maneuvering game that was aimed to obstruct our demand for immediate and unconditional inspection of the Project. We are unable to re-engage constructively unless our primary demands are not fulfilled.

With best regards,

Mushtaq Gadi
On the behalf of the Chashma Inspection Requesters.