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Sethusamudram hits Dutch funding snag?
Sunday, 26 March 2006 - 2:41 AM SL Time
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Reports reaching Colombo yesterday suggested India`s Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project has hit a funding snag in the Netherlands'a leading ecologist claiming that a Dutch agency has decided not to approve an application for export credit insurance submitted by the Tuticorin Port Trust.
TPT is the nodal agency for Sethusamudram, which envisages the dredging of an expensive shipping channel between India and Sri Lanka.
Dr Ranil Senanayake, chairman of Rainforest Rescue International, said the Dutch Export Credit Agency (DECA) Atradius-DSB had been poised to finalise its agreement with TPT earlier this year but has since suspended the deal.
Asked for verification, a senior source from the Indian High Commission in Colombo said they had none. `I have not heard about this,` he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
In January, Senanayake had himself urged DECA not to approve TPT`s application for export credit insurance. He told the firm in a letter that many aspects of critical importance to both India and Sri Lanka have `not been adequately dealt with` in the Environmental Impact Assessment conducted by its National Environmental Engineering Institute (NEERI).
`One example is that the impact on the vesicular, Miocene, limestone base that connects so many critical freshwater aquifers has not even been commented upon in the geologic section,` Senanayake wrote. `The potential disasters of such events must be evaluated.`
`Other considerations, such as trans-boundary effects and international convention obligations have not been addressed nor analysed either,` he also noted. `Under such conditions, I would urge you from acting on this matter until the current concerns are addressed in the EIA and a better multi-stakeholder process is initiated and Sri Lankan input, which was never obtained by the National Environmental Research Institute in the preparation of this EIA, is included in any new version.`
Speaking to the Sunday Island, Senanayake also maintained that `no funding agency in its right mind` should support the Sethusamudram project without first considering the trans-boundary effects of the controversial venture on neighbouring countries.
He said this was all the more relevant as India had not sought Sri Lanka`s input towards the EIA.
`Very fundamental issues haven`t been addressed in the EIA,` he reiterated. `Let this be a wake-up call to all Sri Lankans.`
`The Indians are doing their own thing without looking to the Sri Lankans at all,` he warned. `There must be better multi-stakeholder dialogue on the environmental, social and political implications of Sethusamudram.`
Official government sources also claimed that the Indians had not consulted Sri Lanka in the EIA process. `They have now started dredging using State dredging institutions while tenders have also been called,` an authoritative officer said, requesting anonymity. `The EIA report has not taken into consideration the seabed on the Sri Lankan side although the project will definitely have an impact on us.`
Another official echoed: `India has gone ahead without consulting us although this is not in keeping with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, we must take into account diplomatic sensitivities. We cannot go out with a battleaxe.` He, too, did not wish to be identified but confirmed that Sri Lankan scientists had found a `whole lot of shortcomings in the NEERI report`.
Asked for a comment, the Indian High Commission source denied strongly that Sri Lanka had not been sounded out. `There is a process of consultation between India and Sri Lanka, not at a political but technical level,` he said. Two rounds of meetings had already been held and Sri Lanka had fielded a 17-member team to the last confab in Delhi.
`All the documents Sri Lanka asked for were provided, including the EIA and hydrographic data,` the source asserted. `These run into thousands of pages. A communication channel has also been set up with Indian scientists. There is space for discussion.`
During President Mahinda Rajapakse`s visit to India in December, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reiterated that India would engage in consultation `at any time of Sri Lanka`s choosing` and that Sri Lanka`s environmental concerns will be taken into account.
When told that some Sri Lankan scientists had found the EIA flawed, the source replied: `We have not yet received the Sri Lankan response to our showing of documents. Perhaps this will be taken up at the next round of meetings. This is a matter between responsible governments.` He added that India planned to send a five-member delegation to the forthcoming talks, for which dates have not been finalised.
He rejected allegations that India had neglected vital aspects of ecological conservation. `India has a very, very active environmental lobby,` he affirmed. `Environmental concerns are close to the heart of the Indian Government. Why would we harm our own environment or that of adjoining countries' The environment belongs to all humanity.`
An informed official from the Sri Lanka Government said that dates for a third meeting (due to be held in Colombo) have been proposed to India. `We have been asking for dates and have suggested some in the third week of April. Our technical groups continue to study the project. Our experts in hydro-dynamic modelling have also asked to sit with Indian scientists.`
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