Zubair Torwali
‘My name is Tajar. I cannot give my property whatever happens to me. I inherited it from my father. If I sell it, where will my grandchildren and great grandchildren go? I have nine children. The government should first slaughter them and then build the project [Madyan Hydropower Project]’.
Tajar is a farmer of Kalagy, near Madyan, whose land is required for the powerhouse area of the Madyan Hydropower Project.
Another farmer, requesting for anonymity, of the same village states, ‘PEDO, the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization, says it will give employment to the people. It only means labour while better employment will be given to outsiders on bribes and political influence’.
‘I swear we will not let this project happen until they cut our heads off. While selling our land for the MHPP we will lose land for graves. If we sell it where will we bury our dead’ said another farmer of the Kalagy village.
Madyan Hydropower Project is a 157–207-megawatt project which has been designed by PEDO on the River Swat in such a way where it will divert the river into a 12-kilometre-long tunnel near Kedam village,06 kilometres upstream the Bahrain town in Swat after having a reservoir of 16.5 meters high. The tunnel will be on the left bank of the river and opens near Kalagy where the powerhouse of the project is designed.
The Madyan Hydropower along with the Gabral-Kalam Hydropower Project is part of the larger Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hydro and Renewable Energy Program “KHRE” funded by the World Bank.
Both projects were recently excluded from the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC)’s ten years Indicative Generation and Capacity Expansion Plan “IGCEP 2024-2034 by the federal government upon which the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government protested.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government sent its concerns over this move of the federal government. In March this year Special Assistant on Energy and Power to Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Tariq Saddozai, sent a letter to the federal Minister for Power, Sardar Awais Khan Leghari, saying that the two hydropower projects — Gabral Kalam HPP (88 MW) and Madyan HPP (207 MW) — financed by the World Bank under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hydropower & Renewable Energy Development (KHRE) Programme should be included in the IGCEP prepared by NTDC. He further claimed that the said projects were previously included in the IGCEP for 2021-31. He further said in the letter that despite meeting the necessary assumptions and criteria, these projects have been excluded from the list of “committed projects” in the draft IGCEP 2024-34.
According to the IGCEP report the key objective of the plan is to develop a least cost, 10-year indicative generation expansion plan for the whole country to meet the power and energy demand in a reliable and sustainable manner while maximizing use of indigenous resources for energy security. NTDC prepares this IGCEP every year to meet its regulatory requirement, as stipulated in the Planning Code 4 of the prevailing Grid Code, which takes into account the assumptions laid down in National Electricity Policy 2021 (NEP) along with some additional assumptions and identified constraints, if any.
IGCEP sets criteria for inclusion of any electricity project by private or public entities as: A project has been considered as ‘committed’, provided the project fulfills at least one of the following pre-requisites: a) Private sector projects having either financial close or under construction with a valid Letter of Support (LOS) along with a signed Project document (EPA/PPA and IA). b) Public sector projects having either strategic importance or under construction with PC-1 approved and financing arranged. c) Government to Government (G2G) projects d) RE Project (Wind, Solar, Bagasse) enlisted in Category I & II of CCoE’s decision dated 4th April 2019.
In the list of 63 committed projects by IGCEP 2024-34 Madyan and Gabral-Kalam Hydropower Projects are not included.
In its optimization ten years plan IGCEP 2024-34 has listed 87 hydroporporjcts with the criteria as: ‘a. The cost nos (CAPEX & OPEX) approved by NEPRA for an optimized project shall either be equal or less than the cost used in IGCEP, if in any case the cost given by NEPRA to any optimized project is more than the one used in IGCEP, then a re-run shall be required to assess the viability / optimization of that very project on the new cost. b. For issuance of LOS to the private sector projects and PC-1 approval of the public sector projects, the relevant agency must ensure that the project cost determined/approved by NEPRA shall either be less than or equal to the cost considered in IGCEP for that particular optimized project, otherwise, re-evaluation of the project.’ The main objective is, therefore, to determine a minimum cost strategy for long-range expansion of the power generation, transmission and distribution systems adequate to supply the load forecast within a set of prevailing technical, economic and political constraints.’
From the above criteria and the subsequent exclusion of the Madyan Hydropower Project and Gabral-Kalam Hydropower project seems to have been costly for the country. In financial terms, indeed they are but what is missing in the Saddozai’s letter or in the IGCEP is the “cost” paid by the local communities for such hydropower projects which not only destroy their resources, ecosystems, environment but also cause displacement of these people and erosion of their identity, heritage and rights to lands and water.
Since July 2024 the indigenous Torwali community of the Madyan Hydropower Project’s area of influence ‘AOI’ has been protesting and agitating against this project under the banner of Darya-e-Swat Bachao Tehreek—-Save River Swat Movement— on solid grounds as grave violations of the people’s right such as the lack of prior, fair and informed consent (PFIC), meaningful consultation, misrepresenting their identity and imposition of Section 4 of colonial laws like the Land Acquisition Act. Additionally, the project’s reports like Environmental and Social Impact Assessment and Resettlement Action Plan totally ignored the larger impacts of this project on the tourism of the 16 kilometres long belt including the scenic town of Bahrain, which has more than 100 hotels, restaurants and thousands of shops all dependent on tourism. These reports also ignore the harms the project and its tunnel will cause to the irrigation and drinking water sources of villages like Darolai, Shagai, Ayeen and Mankar— 25000 population dependent on natural springs and water channels for agriculture and drinking.
River Swat in Bahrain and around presents a refreshing look here along with playing the role of carbon sequester in the area. The River Swat and the springs are also embedded in the cultural imagination and heritage of the Indigenous Torwali people who, more than 65,000 of the project area, living across both sides of the river, will suffer the most as a considerable large number of them has already been badly affected by the Daral Khwar Hydropower Project, of 36 megawatts, built by diverting the Daral River above Bahrain town in 2018 by the same organization, PEDO.
Neither the government nor the IGCEP pay heed to the concerns of the local people. The locals have approached the World Bank through letters and its grievances redressal system and have been in consultation with the Bank but given the apathy and inefficiency of the PEDO this process yields no viable results in time. While the indigenous people and the World Bank have been in close consultation for the development of an Action Plan for future negotiations the Bank’s client PEDO has been applying delaying tactics in the hope that it will alienate the locals from the World Bank. Instead of complying with the points in the Action Plan the client has been using the district administration to somehow force the movement to stop correspondence with the World Bank playing ‘national security’, and ‘national interest’ cards. It also spreads conspiracy theories related to top management of the Bank.
The Torwali community has three main demands regarding the Madyan Hydropower Project ;(i) first and foremost, they demand they oppose the the current design of the project and ask the government that it should seek alternatives for the Madyan Hydropower Project which must ensure that the River Swat should not be diverted into tunnels. The Torwali community demands that ff the government and the lender do not deem it feasible then the project should be rolled back alternatively ;(ii) second, the Torwali people of the project area are Indigenous as per the criteria set by either the International Labor Organization or the World Bank. In light of the recent screening of the Torwali people internally done by the World Bank they should be recognized as Indigenous ; and (iii) third, after having changed the design of the project and declaring the Torwali people as indigenous an Indigenous Peoples’ Development Framework should be developed in consultation with the people which could include social development plan, livelihood restoration plan and plan for the preservation and development of the tangible and intangible heritage of the Torwali community.
As it is now, the Madyan Hydropower Project deserves a permanent exclusion from the IGCEP. Currently the rationale given by the IGCEP for the exclusion of the project is based on financial costing. Such plans also need to consider the impacts such hydropower projects cause to the local community and this should also be a criterion for evaluating any candidate project, especially hydroelectric projects from North Pakistan. Ends
