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Article

28 Apr 2020

Author:
Community Empowerment & Social Justice Network

Nepal: Communities affected by Chobhar dry port file complaint with World Bank

“Chobhar dry port affected communities file complaint with the World Bank against the construction of the project”, 25 April 2020

Representatives of communities affected by the dry port under construction at Chobhar in south of Kathmandu… filed a complaint with the Inspection Panel – the independent complaint mechanism of the World Bank that is financing the project. They allege failure to uphold free, prior and informed consent of the affected communities – predominatly indigenous Newar – for the project, among other violations, and thus have called on the Bank to immediately stop disbursement of budget as well as all construction activity and adopt an alternative plan for the dry port.

The complaint was filed by the representatives of the Chobhar Protection Committee detailing the concerns and opposition of the indigenous and local communities against the dry port. They allege that the construction of the dry port violates social and environmental safeguard policies of the World Bank as well as Nepali and international laws, including under the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They have hence requested the Inspection Panel to investigate on the violations of the Bank policies to result in the Bank taking steps to remedy their concerns.

Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had laid the foundation stone for the dry port in January 2019 amid protests and opposition of the locals. At the time, at least fifty-two locals were arrested from the streets and their houses in a brutal police suppression of their peaceful sit-in and demonstration. Around 150 locals had gathered to oppose the government’s forceful move to construct the dry port in Chobhar that will destroy the place of historical, cultural and environmental significance of Chobhar area without fair acquisition of their land…

The government had awarded the construction contract of the dry port to the Aashish joint venture and the Lumbini-Koinshi and Neupane joint venture in August 2018. A meeting in November 2018 between Nepal’s Ministry for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, the World Bank and the government agency constructing the dry port – the Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board (NITDB) had decided to take the concerns of the locals into consideration. But the construction began without any concrete action to address them with the use of security force to quell any protest at the site…