Concerns Raised Over the Tanahu Hydropower Project’s Impact on Local Communities

Communities affected by the Tanahu Hydropower Project, which includes damming the Seti river in Nepal, recently submitted a 26-point memorandum to Nepal’s Energy Minister, stressing concerns regarding the project’s impacts on their traditional lands and livelihoods and failure to consult local communities. In the memorandum, the Tanahu Hydropower Directly Affected Area Concerned Committee and Directly Concerned Inundation Area Conservation Committee welcomed potential benefits for national development but raised serious concerns regarding lack of transparency or consultation. The memorandum, delivered to the financiers of the project, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), urged the institutions to provide communities with a copy of the Resettlement and Indigenous Peoples Plan for the Project as well as relevant safeguards policies, to conduct meaningful consultations with the affected communities and to include their representation in compensation committees as well as to respect rights to traditional lands of the communities including where they may not have formal title. Read more here.