By Tariq Naqash, The Dawn, Sept 15
MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 14: The AJK Environmental Protection Agency (AJK-EPA) has declined to grant the mandatory no-objection certificate to Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) for a second hydropower project envisaging diversion of River Jhelum on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad for certain technical reasons.
Sources told Dawn here on Monday that Wapda had submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of Kohala Hydropower Project (KHP) to the AJK-EPA in June. It was circulated by the latter to experts on its panel for environmental reviews. According to sources, the agency had also shared salient features of the report with notables from public and private sector.
The opinion gathered from experts and other stakeholders led the agency to reach a conclusion that the KHP, as conceived by the present study, was unacceptable for the people of AJK in general and Muzaffarabad in particular and the same had been conveyed to Wapda, the sources added.
It may be pointed out that Wapda has already initiated construction of 969-megawatt Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric project in district Muzaffarabad which also envisages diversion of River Neelum from Nauseri to Chattar Klass through a tunnel. Execution of the project was started without signing an agreement with the AJK government and obtaining the mandatory NOC from the AJK-EPA. The 13-year-old EIA report of NJHEP, which Wapda had submitted to the AJK-EPA, was being revised following serious objections by the agency.
The EIA report of KHP, sources said, was also flawed and made no reference to most of the issues associated with the project.
The report did not mention the basis of methodology, criteria and framework used for the site selection of this project. Similarly, the analytical methods or techniques used to select economically feasible project with regard to environmental criteria (environmental constraints and parameters) were also missing from it, the sources said.“We have told Wapda that in the proposed KHP the superficial benefits and economic aspects conspicuously supersede the environmental concerns by the design with maximum installed capacity that envisages diversion of almost 100 per cent of river base flow,” EPA sources said.
“This diversion will render the 29-km-long river tract – from dam site to Domel – almost dry for eight months in a year, thus further aggravating the problem already caused by the diversion of Neelum River under NJHEP which is leaving the 39-km- river strip from Nauseri to Domel literally dry for seven months of a year,” they added.
According to them, the alternatives which were usually considered and assessed at feasibility stage to ensure that the mega projects like KHP proved financially and environmentally viable had not been considered in the instant case.
“Diversion of natural flow with no consideration of alternatives was a clear manifestation of making the project totally short benefit oriented rather than environmentally sustainable.”
Listing the characteristics of Jhelum valley interconnected with River Jhelum flowing through it, the EPA sources maintained that total diversion of river was tantamount to inflicting a destructive stir in the natural balance of environmental settings of this area.
The EIA report (on KHP) failed to take into account the fact that around 50 to 60 per cent of the water of tributaries (of River Jhelum) was being consumed for the agricultural purposes almost round the year and will no more be fully available for environmental flow. It was also completely oblivious of the concerns of the residents of Muzaffarabad city, the primary affectees of diversion of both the rivers, the sources said.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/environment-body-refuses-noc-to-power-project-599
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