The villagers inhabited in the upstream and downstream of Mapithel Dam are worrying about happening a large scale devastation from the ongoing dam construction in future if the authority failed to do the needful.
This kind of apprehension by the villagers during a public meeting cum mass rally organised by Human Right Initiatives on Wednesday at Moirangpurel community hall about 30 km east of Imphal.The Mapithel Dam Affected villagers Organisation (MPAVO) chairman RS Saichthan blazoned out that the upstream parts of tge villages have been submerged due to filling up of the reservoir and many agricultural land.Besides the grazing ground or forest area of Louphong and Chandong villages have also been inundated with water.
“At the same time the downstream part of Dam have dried up due to blocking of Thoubal river”, he added. The filling up process at the dam reservoir forced the villagers to access the lake water .
Expressing his suspicion over the way the dam is developed, he said, “the Mapithem Dam is an unpredictable Dam”. He added that the people are not sure when the dam will collapsed. He allged that the dam was constructed without following the proper norms. He further alleged that the constructed was done without soil testing and most part of the reservoir were filled up without quality. Moreover, he also alleged that the construction was done without forest clearances and so far there is no proper rehabilitation plans for the affected people inhabited both in downstream and upstream of the dam.
During the public meeting, RS Saichthan questioned the public, “What we will do now for our survival?” We are not asking anything but to rectify what is not correct and in order to address that threats to our survival in future, he added.
Addressing the meeting, one local leader from Moirangpurel N Manithoiba stated the impact of the dam will not suffer any ministers, contractors, or experts but only the villagers. The sufferers would be the dwellers near the dam. He added that the state government has forgotten its assurance given to the villagers while introducing various provision for affected people.In fact the false promises were made without making livelihood plans and proper rehabilitations activities.
Human Right Initiatives executive director, W Joykumar stated that the people are not against any good provision and opportunities that would benefit the people. He added that people will be always against any initiatives that will affect their lives and future.
He asked the public what benefit will received from the dam that was constructed without any assessment of quality, Impact and other requirements. He said that if the dam happened to collapse, the villager living in the downstream will be submerged overnight with the devastating torrent of waters from the reservoir.
The villagers living in the downstream have expressed that the blocking of Thoubal river for filling up of Mapithel Dam already led to drying up of Thoubal downstream of the dam such as Tumukhong, Itham, Moirangpurel etc. The ongoing move for the construction despite the fact that the national Green Tribunal is still considering the violation of the Forest Rights under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and the Forest Right Act, 2006, the villagers added. And the rehabilitation and resettlement process has been done in a controversial and manipulative way which caused confusion, division and violation of indigenous community rights, the worried villager added.
During the mass protest meeting, a public rally was also held at the meeting venue and the villagers have decided to form a Joint Action Committee in the day’s meeting to take various forms of agitations and intensify their strike.
Courtesy MU
