Activists make case for inland waterways' green clearance

Over 50 concerned citizens comprising river ecologists, environmental activists and academicians, have appealed to Union Environment Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, to submit before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that inland waterways projects should be brought under the ambit of environmental clearance (EC).

The letter sent to the minister on Tuesday has highlighted the need to bring the Shipping Ministry's project under the green clearance regime.

The government has planned 111 waterways in the country and the 1,620-km long National Waterways-1 has already opened for cargo movement on Ganga river.

The letter has been written in the backdrop of a matter which the NGT had raised regarding the execution of National Waterway-1, between Varanasi and Haldia, without an EC. The NGT, in its final order in the matter on November 1, 2018, had directed the environment ministry to look into the issue and submit by January 31 its opinion on whether an EC and Environmental Impact Assessment is required for inland waterways project.

The collective of concerned citizens has said, among other things, that the environment ministry has considered the environmental and social aspects of the project, ignored its own committee's recommendations to include river dredging for the project under clearance regime and has also applied arbitrary standards for the project.

The signatories of the open letter said, "We undersigned... urge you to urgently make prior environmental clearance mandatory and legally binding for the waterways projects in their entirety, and for each of their components, taken together and separately, by unambiguously bringing them under the ambit of the EIA notification 2006." They added, "This will set to rest the current uncertainty that has been sought to be created to exempt these waterways from the ambit of environmental clearance, in spite of their serious adverse impacts."

The letter also mentioned that while the waterway on Ganga, which has already seen cargo movement between Kolkata and Varanasi, was exempted from EC, waterways in Goa have been issued terms of references for EC, showing the arbitrary application of due process.