Indian NGOs urge the World Bank to back the EIR

Published by MAC on 2004-04-21

Indian NGOs urge the World Bank to back the EIR

A large number of Indian groups working on mining issues have demanded that the World Bank implement the recommendations of the recent Extractive Industries Review

To April 21, 2004

Mr. James D Wolfensohn
President
World Bank
Washington, DC 20433
USA

Subject: Extractive Industries Review (EIR) and its Compliance

Dear Mr. Wolfensohn:

We, from India, together with the peoples organisations, movements, the indigenous and tribal peoples and the civil society groups wish to draw your attention to the Bank’s lukewarm response to the Extractive Industries Review Final Report: Striking a Better Balance.

Because we affirm our support to the Recommendations made in the above report compiled by Dr. Emil Salim, we are also anguished to see media reports suggesting that the Bank management has rejected the key proposals of the independent review which the Bank commissioned itself, including the phasing out of Bank finance in oil and coal sector projects in the developing world.

The Review has produced an important and inter-connected set of recommendations and also validates many of the concerns that communities and civil society organisations have been raising with the Bank Group for more than two decades.

We, therefore, feel that the World Bank Group should comply with the policy changes suggested in the Recommendations, and while financing extractive projects hereto, should:

• obtain prior informed consent of local communities and indigenous peoples affected by extractive projects as a precondition for financing;
• phase out lending for coal operations immediately and that of oil projects by 2008;
• increase support for renewable energy by twenty per cent per annum;
• develop a human rights unit and adopt a rights based approach to development;
• ensure the establishment of indigenous peoples’ land rights as a condition for project finance;
• support projects that benefit all affected local groups including women and the poorest;
• include health impact assessments to be conducted during project preparation;
• adopt all four core labour standards promoted by the ILO and support workers laid-off by mine closings;
• ensure that all agreements with indigenous people and affected communities are covenanted in project agreements/contracts;
• ensure that good governance structures are in place before project finance and implementation occurs;
• not support extractive industries in areas of conflict or at high risk of conflict;
• should protect biodiversity through establishing “no go” areas for ecologically critical habitats;
• promote revenue transparency, just revenue sharing among the project affected;
• adopt and strengthen a wide range of social and environmental policies; and
• ensure that the environmental and social obligations are covenanted in loan and project agreements, disclosed and documents are made available in local languages, in a timely and culturally appropriate manner.

We speak from our experiences of what happened to the project affected indigenous people of East Parej Coal Mines in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand and many others. You are perhaps aware that the case study of the East Parej project was considered by the EIR team and also of the conclusions drawn by the inspection panel which visited the project.

War, poverty, climate change, greed, corruption, and ongoing violations of human rights – all of these scourges are all too often linked to the oil and mining industries. Your efforts to create a world without poverty need not exacerbate these problems.

We are aware that civil society organisations around the world including labour, environmental organisations, development agencies, human rights groups and indigenous peoples’ representatives around the world have stood by this report.

We wish to stand by them firmly.

We also demand that the above mentioned policy changes should be reflected in the Bank’s country papers and strategy, failing which the extractive industry projects in India financed by the World Bank Group, will face stiff peoples’ resistance.

Yours sincerely

Sl. No.

Name
Organisation
City/Country

1. Himanshu Thakkar
South Asia Network of Dams, Rivers & People (SANDRP)
Delhi, India

2. Philip Neri D’Souza
Mining Activist
Goa, India

3. Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh
Pune, India

4. Madhumita Dutta
Activist
Delhi, India

5. Stan Lourdasamy
Jharkhand Justice Forum
Ranchi, India

6. Xavier Dias
BIRSA/Mines Monitoring Centre
Ranchi, India

7. Ashok Chowdhury
National Forum of Forest People & Forest Workers
Nagpur, India

8. Allister Bodra
Save the Forest Movement
Khunti, Jharkhand, India

9. Soumitra Ghosh
NESPON
Siliguri, India

10. P Khawas
Himalayan Forest Workers Union
Garubathan, Darjeeling, India

11. Savita Gokhale
Earthcare Foundation
Delhi, India

12. Gemma Mendes
Chotanagpur Adivasi Sewa Samity
Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India

13. Ganesh Ganjhu
Prerana Resource Centre
Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India

14. Ravi Rebapraggada
Mines minerals & People
Hyderabad, India

15. Rana Sengupta
Mines Labour Protection Campaign
Jodhpur, India

16. Ashok Srimali
SETU
Ahmedabad, India

17. Ashim Roy
New Trade Union Initiative
Ahmedabad, India

18. Shripad Dharmadhikari
Manthan Adhyayan Kendra
Badwani, Madhya Pradesh, India

19. Chittaroopa Palit
Narmada Bachao Andolan
Mandleshwar, Madhya Pradesh, India

20. Milindo Chakraborty
CREATE
Darjeeling, India

21. Harekrishna Debnath
National Fishworkers Forum
Tribandrum, India

22. Sunita Dubey
Environmental Activist
Delhi, India

23. Joy Joseph
Programme for Social Action (PSA)
Tiruvalla, Kerala, India

24. Debabrat. R Laifungbum
Core Manipur
Imphal, India

25. Rohit Jain
SRUTI
Delhi, India

26. Venkatesh Bubberjung
Advocate
Bangalore, India

27. Manas Jena
OMAPAN
Bhubaneshwar, India

28. Dr. Bela Bhatia
Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)
Delhi, India

29. Joe Athialy
The People’s Movement
Mumbai, India

30. Maju Varghese
Initiative
Mumbai, India

31. Praveen Mote
Samata
Hyderabad, India

32. Bhanu Kalluri
Women and Mining Network
Hyderabad, India

33. Sreedhar Rammoorthy
Mm&P New Delhi Centre
Delhi, India

34. ICML Workers Union
Sarsathali, West Bengal, India

35. Himanshu Upadhyay
Public Finance Expert
Delhi, India

36. Goldy George
Dalit Alliance
Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India

37. Philip George
Partners in Justice Concern
Bangalore, India

38. Kunal Deb
Uthnao
Birbhum, West Bengal, India

39. Jose Sebastian
Solidarity
Wayanad, Kerala, India

40. Durga Jha
Mining Activist
Chhattisgarh, India

41. Souparna Lahiri
Delhi Forum
Delhi, India

42. Zakir Kibria
Bangla Praxis
Bangladesh

43. Roma
Uttar Pradesh Agrarian Reform and Labour Rights Campaign Committee
Sonebhadra, India

44. Rampal
SANKALP
Shankargarh, Allahabad, India

45. Dr. Vinayan
Jan Mukti Andolan
Jehanabad, Bihar, India

C.C. :

Mr. Michael F Carter, Executive Director, World Bank (India Office)