From: Glenn Switkes <irn@igc.apc.org>
/* Written 4:46 PM Oct 5, 1996 by irn in ax:ax.ambiente */
/* ---------- "URGENT:Letters to WB,IDB re Yacyret" ---------- */
REQUEST FOR LETTER WRITNG:
(deadline October 13, 1996)
Re: Yacyreta Dam Inspection Panel Claim with World Bank and Inter-
American Development Bank
Dear Colleagues and Friends: The following is in relation to the Yacyreta
Dam inspection panel claim and a proposed letter of support from the
international NGO community addressed to the World Bank and the Inter
American Development Bank. Hopefully your letter could arrive by October
13 since the first fifteen days after a claim has been subjected to the
banks are crucial. Your letter should help the banks take a rigorous
attitude toward investigating the charges brought by the claim.
Background:
Sobrevivencia, Friends of the Earth Paraguay filed a claim Monday,
September 30th with the World Bank Inspection Panel and the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) Investigation Mechanism. Sobrevivencia presented
this claim on their own behalf and for people affected by the Yacyreta
Hydroelectric Project.
The Yacyreta Hydroelectric Project (YHP) is a joint project between
Argentina and Paraguay that involves the construction of a large dam,
67 km. in length, on the Parana' River. The project has been plagued by
delays, corruption, procurement disputes, political changes, and the
reluctance of the Argentine government to provide its share of counterpart
financing. The Banks' handling of their loans over a 17-year period
display continual violations of their own policies and procedures.
The dam as planned will inundate approximately 109,000 hectares in
Paraguay and Argentina, including unique river island ecosystems with
endemic species. The reservoir has already been partially filled, but the
social and environmental assessments were carried out only after the
project began. They did not result in adequate mitigation measures for the
dams's social impacts: displacement of people who had to abandon their
homes and sources of sustenance and health impacts, nor did they
adequately resolve the project's devastating environmental impacts caused
by loss of unique ecosystems, blocking of fish migrations, and drying of
river channels.
The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank have provided more
than US$1,740,000,000 for the project since 1979. The funding has gone to
a binational entity created to manage the project that has proven it has
little capacity to respond to the concerns, interests and rights of
affected peoples, and has little interest in mitigating the project's
enviromental impacts.
Attached is a draft letter that Sobrevivencia is asking you to sign to
support their claim, addressed to the Presidents of both banks.
For more details about the claim or the Yacyreta Dam, please contact:
Elias Diaz Pena, Sobrevivencia email: survive@ax.apc.org
Glenn Switkes, International Rivers Network glen@nutecnet.com.br
or Dana Clark, Center for International Environmental Law,
cieldlc@igc.apc.org.
If you want to be on the e-mailing list to follow up the process and
results of the claim please inform Glenn or Maria Augusta Espinoza at Red
Bancos (mespinoza@igc.apc.org).
Sobrevivencia has requested that they receive a copy of your
correspondence (survive@ax.apc.org) and/or to Red Bancos US Node
(mespinoza@igc.apc.org).
====================================================
SAMPLE LETTER:
October 1st. , 1996.
Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President
World Bank
1818 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20433,
USA
by fax: +202-477-6391
Mr. Enrique Iglesias, President
Inter-American Development Bank
1300 New York Av. NW, Washington, D.C. 20577, USA
by fax: +202-623-3614
RE: Inspection Panel and Investigation Mechanism-Yacyreta
Hydroelectric Project
We are writing to support the claim filed by Sobrevivencia, a
Paraguayan NGO, on September 30th, 1996 relating to the Yacyreta
Hydroelectric Project. The claim was filed jointly with both the
World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. We
understand that Sobrevivencia filed the claim on its own
behalf and representing local people affected by the project.
We know the claim provides documentation that proves the
Banks' failure to implement their own policies, directives
and procedures, including World Bank Operational directives on
Involuntary Resettlement, Wildlands, Environmental
Assessment, Indigenous Peoples, Project Monitoring and
Evaluation, and the IDB's Procedures for Classifying and
Evaluating Environmental Impacts of Bank Operations and
Strategies and Procedures on Socio-Cultural Issues as Related to
the Environment, among others.
The Yacyreta Hydroelectric Project (YHP), represents another step
to transform the Upper Parana', one of the world's largest water
basins, through a succession of dams. This dam has flooded lands
of fishers, artisans, and people whose way of living has being
disrupted forever. The cities of Encarnacio'n in Paraguay and
Posadas in Argentina also have been affected. The Yacyreta,
Talavera and dozens of small islands in Paraguayan territory that
have been the traditional habitat of many indigenous
communities (Mbya Guarani) have also been flooded.
We understand that Sobrevivencia has raised the problems that
the YHP has caused to staff at both the Inter-American
Development Bank and the World Bank on several occasions,
and received an inadequate response.
One issue of particular concern is the future plan of both
governments and the banks to privatize the Yacyreta Hydroelectric
Dam. This matter raises questions: How will a private enterprise
assume responsibility for the social and environmental measures?
How will the rights of affected people be protected under the
privatization scheme? How are the banks going to fulfill their
responsibilities in the social and environmental area before
privatization?
We agree and support Sobrevivencia's conclusion that the YHP
mitigation, compensation and resettlement plans should be
carried out in full consultation with affected people. We also agree
with the need for a complete evaluation of the economic rationale
behind privatization before taking any further steps. In addition,
the banks should consider leaving the dam's operating level
at 76 meters above sea level permanently, to avoid further
impacts.
By supporting this claim we want to increase accountability and
transparency of both banks and to make their Investigation
Mechanisms more responsive to those affected by bank projects,
especially that of the IDB whose mechanism has yet to be tested.
Sincerely,