The theme of the address was ‘Land Acquisition and Media Reporting’ and focused on research work done over the last 18 months on the impact of two major development projects, — in this instance in the power sector — and local communities.
The two projects were widely separated and could not have been more different — the 150MW solar power unit to the southwest of Bahawalpur, a ‘green energy’ project and the Thar Coal Project which is a large-scale fossil fuel programme and anything but ‘green’. The projects were presented as being for some two steps forward and one step back. The Thar Project is going to have massive environmental implications that are going to place Pakistan in the eyes of a world that views ‘dirty coal’ use for power generation with a gelid eye. For local residents the impact is more immediate. Their villages have been eaten up. Their ancestral lands have disappeared and there has been little or nothing they could do about it. Although they are being provided with ‘new villages’ that have every convenience, yet they are a poor cultural fit compared to the way they have lived their lives. Local activism has come to naught. In Bahawalpur, there has been no reported activism despite the loss of land and livelihood.
The point being made was that there are going to be increasing numbers of very large development projects that are essential if the country is to move forward, but that they come at a silent price — the loss of livelihoods and entire communities which are indifferently compensated eventually to disappear altogether. Development comes with a cruel twist if you live in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2018.
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