The Art of Stonewalling
“Hi. This is Bharat from International Rivers. I’m calling regarding an email sent to you on August 4,” I said to a senior official in India's Ministry of Power over the phone. It had taken a few weeks of calling to finally get this Indian government official to answer my call. “I’ve been trying to get through to you as we have yet to receive a reply or acknowledgement from your office regarding our letter,” I added, before beginning to explain to the contents of the letter. The official cut me off abruptly. “We receive 300 emails a day,” he said curtly. “I understand. Your office asked me to re-send it on the 22nd last month; earlier I had also sent a hard copy via post mail.” A few moments later he recalled my name and remembered seeing some letter of the sort.
The letter in question was signed by a group of NGOs opposing a draft hydropower purchase obligations policy, an idea proposed by the Ministry of Power. The policy seeks to mandate power distribution utilities to purchase a fixed amount of electricity as sourced from hydropower projects each year. In doing so, the government is attempting to revive interest in the struggling hydropower sector by providing a safety net for hydropower developers. Two industrialists lobbied for the policy as part of an advisory group to the Minister of Power in February last year.
Our letter of opposition urged the Ministry to exercise caution and drop its plans to sanction such a policy. We have demanded that the cumulative impact of hydropower projects under construction and proposed in different river basins be assessed in order to understand the full costs and risks of large hydropower projects (above 25 megawatt). No credible assessments exist. Unlike renewables, the large hydropower sector does not merit a policy safety net given the many known social and ecological impacts of such projects. For too long the industry has been hiding behind the pretext that hydropower is necessary to manage peaking power demands. In the letter, we requested that the Ministry of Power report on the operation of current dam reservoirs and divulge credible information to justify the need for such a policy, which they claim is needed to ensure that the state governments meet respective energy demands.
In our letter we also reasoned that given India’s vast renewable energy potential, be it wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass energy, as well as potential to deploy low-impact pico, micro and mini hydropower (5 kw to 1000 kw) projects, a policy impetus for large hydropower must not be prioritized in the power planning strategy. But the Ministry is not willing to engage with dissenting voices. The official, two minutes in to our conversations asked if I work for an environmental NGO. Upon receiving an affirmative from my end, he promptly said thank you and slammed down the phone.
This interaction is reflective of the Ministry of Power’s relationship with civil society, which is nothing short of adversarial. They are headstrong in wanting to expedite large hydropower with scant regard for environmental and social safeguards. For the Ministry, statutory clearances that mandate environmental impact assessments or fair public hearings for project-affected people are a hindrance in advancing a project. Also, officials are practiced in the art of stonewalling anyone seeking to question their unwavering goal. They’re quick to label them as activists who are anti-development.
