6 October 2021, Manthali/Kathmandu
Indigenous Majhi communities of Ramechhap and Sindhuli districts in eastern Nepal have demanded cancellation of Sunkoshi-2 Hydropower Project stating that the Project will result in large scale displacement of the Majhi communities and other locals and even wipe out the identity and existence of the Majhi people from their ancestral lands.
On Thursday (30 September), hundreds of Majhis from various villages of Ramechhap and Sindhuli districts clad in their indigenous attire took out a protest rally playing their traditional drums and musical instruments in Manthali – the district headquarter of Ramechhap. They carried boat- and fish-shaped placards and chanted slogans calling for, among others, annulment of the Sunkoshi-2 Hydropower Project, respect for their Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and creation of an autonomous Majhi protected region. The Majhis led by the Sunkoshi-2 Hydropower Project Joint Struggle Committee also submitted their letter demanding cancellation of the Project to the Chief District Officer of Ramechhap, Dipak Kumar Pahadi, and the Mayor of Manthali Municipality, Ramesh Kumar Basnet. They assured the Majhi representatives that the local authorities were serious about their demand and that it will be conveyed to the concerned national authorities. Following submission of the demand letter, the rally converged into a corner assembly in Manthali town center, whereby the Majhi communities’ representatives and Committee officials relayed their concerns and demand.
Similarly, a delegation of the Majhi communities’ representatives handed over the demand letter to Nepal’s Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Pampha Bhusal, on Sunday (3 October) in Kathmandu. In response, the Minister committed to look into the demand seriously in moving forward with the Sunkoshi-2 Hydropower Project. The delegation also submitted the letter to Sandip Kumar Dev, Director General of the Department of Electricity Development under the Ministry. The Director General informed the delegation that the Project was in the phase of environmental impact assessment – the report of which will include the demand of the communities.
On Monday (4 October), the Majhi representatives met with Nepal’s Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba to hand over the demand letter at the Prime Minister’s residence in Baluwatar, Kathmandu. They also submitted the letter to the National Human Rights Commission and the Indigenous Nationalities Commission the same day. On Tuesday (5 October), the demand letter was also emailed to the Nepal Resident Mission of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that had earlier agreed to support the feasibility study, including environmental and social impact assessments, of the Sunkoshi-2 Hydropower Project and the Sunkoshi-3 Hydropower Project in its upstream under a grant signed in 2013. However, the ADB reportedly withdrew its support for the study in amendment to the grant in 2016.
The 978 MW storage type Sunkoshi-2 Hydropower Project planned by the Department of Electricity Development will construct a 168 meter high dam on the Sunkoshi River flowing along the border of Ramechhap and Sindhuli districts. The Project will reportedly cause inundation up to at least 53 kms from the dam in an area of 4,500 hectares, submerge majority of settlements along the banks of Sunkoshi and Tamakoshi rivers in the two districts, and displace around 6,000 households and impact 400,000 people.
As stated in the demand letter signed by the Struggle Committee, along with the local and national representatives of the Nepal Majhi Upliftment Association and the Nepal Majhi Women Upliftment Association, the Sunkoshi-2 Hydropower Project will inundate the lands, sacred cremation, river and ancestral worship sites, ghats and other collective properties of the Majhi communities in their ancestral lands and territories in Ramechhap and Sindhuli districts. The Project will not only make them landless but also take away their identity as displacement from their lands will result in loss of their language, culture, traditions, social structures and history that are rooted in those lands. The communities hence claim that the Project will result in annihilation of their identity and existence and strongly call for scrapping the Project.
Besides the Sunkoshi-2 Hydropower Project, environmental impact assessment for a 536 MW Sunkoshi-3 Hydropower Project in its upstream is also ongoing, along with the construction of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multiurpose Project that is already underway amidst disagreements of the affected indigenous Majhi communities of Ramechhap. Further, another Sunkoshi-1 Hydropower Project is proposed in the downstream of the Project. In the demand letter, the Struggle Committee and Majhi organizations have expressed their grave opposition to the construction of those cascade of dams, which will cause irreparable impact on the natural life of the river and result in disappearance of the culture, identity and settlement of the indigenous Majhi associated with the river and the civilization developed along the river.
They have alleged that the Sunkoshi-2 Hydropower Project violates their fundamental rights to life with dignity, to property, to language and culture and to housing, among others as guaranteed in the Constitution of Nepal, as well as their indigenous rights to lands, territories and resources and self-determination as provided in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the ILO Convention 169. They have warned of a series of protests if the authorities do not take concrete steps to address their demand without delay.
Earlier, the Struggle Committee had formed village-level committees in more than forty villages and collected signatures of more than 6,000 Majhi and other locals in the Project impact area that were submitted along with the demand letter. In August, the Majhi communities of Ramechhap had carried out protests against the public hearings for environmental impact assessment of the Sunkoshi-2 Hydropower Project that resulted in postponement of the hearings in Manthali and Rajagaun.
Click here to read the demand letter sent to the ADB Nepal Resident Mission (in Nepali).
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सुनकोशी–२ आयोजना खारेजीको माग गर्दै रामेछापमा माझी समुदायको बिरोद्ध प्रर्दश (फोटोफिचर), 30 Sep 2021, Ramechhaptimes, https://ramechhaptimes.com/news/detail/918/
सुनकोसी २ का विरुद्ध माझी समुदायको प्रदर्शन, 30 Sep 2021, Kantipur, https://ekantipur.com/pradesh-3/2021/09/30/163299700796123479.html
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Photo Credits: Chini Maya Majhi Facebook