The Inspection Panel Investigation Report: Pakistan National Drainage Program Project

In July 2006, the World Bank's Inspection Panel issued their final investigation report of the National Drainage Program project. The NDP project was launched in 1997 and is partly World Bank-funded. It consists of a combination of infrastructure investment, institutional reform, research and sector planning. The aim of the project was to address waterlogging and salinity in the Indus Basin. People from Southern Sindh, affected by the Indus drainage system, the Left Bank Outfall Drain and the NDP project, contacted the Inspection Panel in 2004 with an Inspection Panel request. The Requesters claim that the Bank has violated its own operational policies and procedures, resulting in harm and likely to harm locally affected people and the environment. The Inspection Panel report found that Bank management had violated six of the Bank’s safeguard policies in the NDP project, contributing to the loss of lives and livelihoods in Pakistan’s Southern Sindh province.