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Dec 29 2022
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Petition to stop the Mphanda Nkuwa dam project submitted to the Assembly of the Republic

Mozambican organisation Justiça Ambiental (JA!) last Wednesday (December 21st) submitted a petition with more than 2,600 signatures from Mozambican citizens to demand that the controversial Mphanda Nkuwa dam project, proposed for the Zambezi River, cease immediately.

The terms under which the Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric project was conceived, and under which it is proceeding, do not comply with the fundamental objectives of the Mozambican State enshrined in Article 11 of the Constitution of the Republic, especially with regard to human rights and equitable development. Furthermore, this project entails very high environmental, ecosystem, climate, seismic, social and economic risks, which have not yet been properly assessed and studied by the Mozambican government. Despite these risks, and the numerous requests for clarification and information submitted by Justiça Ambiental to the government and to the Mphanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric Project Implementation Office (GMNK), the project has been moving forward, in this new phase, since 2018, in an accelerated manner and without due public scrutiny.

Furthermore, the project is also in violation of articles 21, 22 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which establish peoples’ right to the free disposal of the use of natural resources and prevent them from being deprived of their use; the right to choose the model of economic development, social and cultural with strict respect for their freedoms and identity; and the right to a balanced environment conducive to their development.

It should be noted that, although the project has been under way for 4 (four) years in this new stage, no public consultation related to the project has yet been carried out, nor has any consultation taken place with the local communities that will be directly and indirectly affected by it. This is in clear violation of several guidelines and principles followed by Mozambique regarding the protection and promotion of the right of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).

With this petition, the more than 2,600 undersigned Mozambican men and women demand that an open, inclusive and comprehensive dialogue is promoted and that the Mozambican government fully clarify the outlines, objectives and rationale behind this “priority” project, including:

• Where does the investment come from and what is the trade-off?

• Why is this project a priority for the country, considering our levels of poverty and inequality; that thousands of children have no place in school, and that there aren’t adequate health services for everyone?

• What is the reason for insisting on this project, which has already been abandoned so many times? What other interests exist behind a project of this dimension?

• Have other energy alternatives been considered? If yes, which ones?

• Who will be responsible for compensating the communities that have had their future mortgaged for the past 20 years, unable to invest in their community and in necessary infrastructure due to fear of losing their investments, since in 2000 they were advised by the government not to build any new infrastructure?

• What is the real purpose of the dam and what supposed gains do they believe the country would reap in the short and long term, including how do they intend to generate financial returns?

We also demand the elaboration of scientifically valid and impartial studies that respond to all the questions that have been raised since the approval of the environmental impact study in 2011, such as:

• Uncertainty about the flow regime under which the dam will operate (base-load or mid-merit);

• Lack of definition on the area chosen for resettlement of the communities directly affected by the dam;

• Poor sediment analysis elaborated with insufficient data, which does not allow for a valid scientific analysis;

• Weak seismic analysis, without concrete data and with results and conclusions that contradict other studies by renowned specialists;

• Weak analysis of the potential impacts of climate change and changes in upstream water demand, which will affect the project’s economic viability;

• The fact that the guidelines of the Worldwide Commission on Dams were not considered or followed, particularly with regard to social and environmental rights and justice, among others;

• Viable energy alternatives for the country, comparing and analyzing the respective benefits and impacts;

• How the project will ensure that the gains generated by the dam will not be appropriated by a small economic and political national elite, and by large multinational companies.

We furthermore demand that an open, inclusive and comprehensive dialogue be promoted around clean, fair and accessible energy solutions for all Mozambican men and women, so that we can embark on a sustainable development that ensures the protection of the important ecosystems that guarantee life on the planet.

Justiça Ambiental also calls for this matter to be dealt with as a matter of urgency, considering the growing and concerning scenario of intimidation and threats that we have observed in the context of our work in the District of Marara, including accusations of terrorism, demand for “authorisation to work on site”, and indication that local communities should not receive legal training on their rights or information on the impacts of dams. Several members of the communities that will have to be resettled to make room for this mega-project have also reported threats, intimidation and ‘warnings’ not to speak out against the project.

In addition to the signatures collected in the District of Marara, in Maputo City and throughout the country, more than 70 national, regional and international non-governmental organisations also signed the petition in online format, in solidarity.

It’s time to say STOP to a development model that enriches our elites and large multinational corporations, at the expense of most of the population and of nature. Let’s together demand clean, decentralised energy projects that benefit the Mozambican people!

Read the full text of the petition on the Justica Ambiental webpage:

In English: https://ja4change.org/2020/12/16/save-the-zambezi-river-from-the-mphanda-nkuwa-dam/

In Portuguese: https://justica-ambiental.org/2020/12/16/salve-o-rio-zambeze-da-barragem-de-mphanda-nkuwa/

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Dec 13 2022
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Communities threatened by the Mphanda Nkuwa dam project are accused of being”terrorist” for having traveled to a workshop in Maputo 






Being labelled 'terrorists' is the latest strategy to intimidate, threaten, and arbitrarily detain people who hold anti-government positions. This is happening in various parts of the country, in Mozambique, and in particular in the district of Marara, Tete province, where the government intends to build the Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric dam, a highly controversial project that has never responded to the numerous environmental, social, economic and climate change questions that have been raised by civil society organizations and experts from Mozambique and other countries.

Recently, from the 22nd to the 25th of November, the Mozambican organization Justiça Ambiental (JA!) organized its 6th Maputo Workshop on Corporate Impunity and Human Rights, which brought together representatives of various civil society organizations, government representatives, academics, lawyers, activists and people affected by megaprojects from across the country. Several participants came from the district of Marara in Tete province, including the community leader from Chirodzi-Nsanangue, one of the communities at risk of being resettled if the proposed Mphanda Nkuwa dam is built.

While in Maputo, the leader received several calls from community members warning him that the local authorities were very unhappy with his trip to Maputo and were mobilizing the community to elect a new leader.

A few days after returning home, the leader received a notification to report to the District Command of Marara in order to be interrogated. Arriving at the Command, the leader was retained for 10 hours, he was denied the right to be accompanied by the lawyer who was accompanying him, he was accused of being a terrorist and was questioned about his trip to Maputo by the District Commander of Marara, an agent of the National Criminal Investigation Services (SERNIC) and a representative of the Ministry of Defense. Finally, he was asked to list the names of all the members of his community who had traveled to Maputo to participate in the Workshop. The leader was released around 6:30pm without any further clarification.

JA! members who were on the site following the events were also accused of terrorism, and informed that they should not be providing information to local communities regarding the impacts of dams, or problems caused by other megaprojects in the country. All of this seems to be a strategy to intimidate members of communities that will be affected by the Mphanda Nkuwa dam project and prevent them from defending their rights.
A few days later, all the 10 other people from Chirodzi and Chococoma who had participated in the Workshop were also notified to report to the District Command of Marara on the 8th, including JA!’s focal person in the community, in order to be interrogated too.
A big movement of solidarity with the community members being threatened emerged, from several parts of the country and even other countries. By the time the 10 community members arrived at the District Command on the 8th, the news about this were circulating widely on social media and radio stations. They were brought inside to be questionned about the Workshop, but at this point, no further threats were made apart from the intimidating presence of armed police officers. JA!’s focal point was interrogated separately, and then asked to leave the room, and the rest of our team was not allowed inside. They were all released a few hours later.
It should be noted that these situations are not isolated cases, and are part of a series of other threats and restrictions that have been made to members of JA team! working in the District of Marara. On several occasions, the District Commander of Marara and the Heads of the Administrative Post and Locality of Marara requested JA!’s credentials and authorization from the police to work on the area, something that is not required by law. In addition, several other members of the Chirodzi-Nsanangue community who have raised criticisms or questions about the dam have reported increasing intimidation and threats since August 2022, when the government, its partners and interested companies began to visit the area in this new stage of the Mphanda Nkuwa dam project.
We demand clarification from the different State actors involved in these intimidations, including the Mphanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric Project Implementation Office: is this is how the local people are forced to accept 'development' projects?

We demand a positioning from government advisors, financiers and potential investors of the Mphanda Nkuwa project, such as the African Development Bank (ADB), the International Hydroelectric Association (IHA), the Norwegian Development Agency (NORAD), the Kingdom of Norway, the Government of Switzerland, the European Union (EU): are you willing to have your name on a project that is already contributing to the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of local communities?


For more information, please contact: jamoz2010@gmail.com

		

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Oct 14 2022

						
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					Mphanda Nkuwa, the witch hunt and a government with no ears
				

		
		

						






After its ‘ghost’ phase between 2018 and 2021, when the Mphanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric Project Implementation Office (GMNK) had already been created but no one could find it (not even MIREME, the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy), over the past year GMNK has been effusively communicating several advances made on the project. Most of these news concerns new partners, potential investors, and calls for studies that are necessary for the different stages of the project. The Jornal Notícias on the 14th of September 2022, however, brought an unprecedented report on a topic that until then had been treated as taboo by our government: the opinion of local communities regarding the project.





Entitled ‘Communities say yes to Mphanda Nkuwa’, the article reports that the population of Chirodzi-Nsanangue, one of the villages that will be resettled to make way for the project, welcomes the construction of this dam. A great deal of information contained in this article, and in a similar television programme broadcasted by TVM (Mozambique’s public TV channel) on the 7th of the same month, raises some questions that deserve to be debated and problematized.





A doctor’s visit





The above-mentioned article and report were produced as a result of the first meeting of the GMNK (accompanied by its consultants) with the Chirodzi community since the revitalization of the project in 2018.





Coincidence or not, this GMNK visit to Chirodzi came just a few weeks after the launch of the study ‘Mphanda Nkuwa Dam: a climate change millstone around Mozambique’s neck’, which took place on 21 July; an event during which the GMNK Director was questioned by some community members as to why no meetings had been held with local communities since the project’s revitalization. On this same occasion community members also asked Director Carlos Yum about what benefits this project would bring to local communities, about maintaining their subsistence activities (fishing, livestock and agriculture) and about the land that would be made available for their resettlement. Some of the responses given by the GMNK Director were considered ‘disrespectful’ by the people who attended the event, as he stated that local populations should not only focus on individual benefits, but believe in the ‘macroeconomic’ benefits that the project will bring to the country. Most of the questions raised by the local communities were answered evasively, ambiguously or unclearly by the Director, missing an opportunity to finally clarify some of the issues that have been troubling these people.





This mention of the macroeconomic benefits of the project and the disregard for the concerns of local populations is in line with a concept that has been presented by several scholars and specialists, in which they call ‘sacrifice zones’ those regions that are buffeted by high environmental impacts and social problems due to the existence of polluting industries or other megaprojects, projects that are usually justified by an alleged ‘greater good’ that supposedly will benefit the country as a whole. Some sociologists have observed that the existence of sacrifice zones is made possible by a culture of vulnerability of the human and environmental rights of marginalized or disadvantaged populations, through which it is evident that some people have rights and privileges, and others suffer the impacts.





Returning to the meeting on the 7th, it is important to mention that it took place during Victory Day, a public holiday, and a day of celebration in the community, which in itself is quite unusual. JA! was present at the meeting that lasted no more than 15 minutes, and consisted of only one person speaking, the representative from GMNK. Of the various communities that will be affected by the project, only the community of Chirodzi-Nsanangue (main neighbourhood) was present, and other communities were not invited (nor their leaders), such as Bairros 1 to 6 of Chirodzi, Chococoma, and Luzinga, among others. No time was given for questions, comments or concerns that the community might have, nor were their concerns documented: no one had the right to speak apart from the GMNK. As we observed on the ground, and according to reports we received from various community members, this first GMNK visit to Chirodzi seemed to have only two purposes: to inform the community that the project is moving forward at full speed; and to produce reports to let the rest of the country know that the communities support the project.





The siege on civil society





Both the Notícias article and the TVM report, media outlets known for being aligned with our government’s interests and agenda, also stated that there are some NGOs that have been instrumentalizing communities so that they do not accept Mphanda Nkuwa’s dam project.





However, Justiça Ambiental has been working with communities in the region for 22 years, with regular visits and activities during the ‘dormant’ phases of the project, and we have never known or come across such organizations. It is really deplorable that some civil society organizations tend to treat local communities as if they were their property, speaking on their behalf and controlling their opinions, but we were not aware that this could be happening in Chirodzi.





However, this persecution of organizations that criticize so-called development projects is already well known. They are referred to as anti-patriotic, anti-development, or even terrorist organizations. Now, the government is preparing to tighten its grip on civil society even further, seeking to pass a highly controversial law that gives the government excessive powers, including to extinguish non-profit organizations for failing to report on their activities. It is easy to imagine what kind of organizations would be the first to suffer such reprisals.





The fact is that certain truths about these megaprojects – their impacts on the environment, the appalling conditions in which local communities are usually resettled, or how promises of employment never materialize – when said out loud do not please the government. What if people discover that the words spoken during community consultations only serve to convince them to accept the project? Worse, what if they decide to organize themselves so that the project progresses only according to their requirements, respecting their wishes, and ensuring that they truly benefit from it?





Communities accuse manipulation of information





Having been present in the region since 2000, and having cultivated a relationship of friendship and solidarity with these communities that was maintained even when the project seemed to have been shelved, JA! has received numerous requests for support, legal training and advice from people who fear the loss of their land with the arrival of the dam. JA!’s activities in this and other communities threatened or affected by megaprojects has been based on sharing information and exchanging experiences on the environmental and social impacts of this type of project, on empowerment and legal capacity building actions so that communities are able to defend their rights and negotiate the terms on which they agree (or not) to give up their land, and in activities that seek to raise the voice and raise awareness of the concerns of local communities through interviews, videos and articles.





When the Jornal Notícias of 14 of September reached Chirodzi and the surrounding area, it caused a lot of indignation within the community. The JA! team began to receive phone calls, SMS and videos from various community members expressing their displeasure with the information portrayed there, and accusing Notícias of manipulating the information, spreading lies and not having asked community members what they think of the project. Several families from two of the neighbourhoods’ threatened by the dam wrote petitions where they ask for some honest, independent and impartial media agency to go to Chirodzi and neighbouring communities in order to listen to the real opinions of the communities. This avalanche of outrage seems to confirm what JA! observed in the field: that there was no interest on the part of the GMNK to hear and make known the real opinion of the local communities regarding this project.





Rights, justice and paths to peace





We will not mention here the numerous risks and potential impacts that we have been pointing out over the last 22 years, and which have been neglected at all stages of the project. It’s not even up to JA! to clarify whether the community is for or against the project. It is up to us, as a civil society organization, to present our position, justify it and bring it up for debate in the public space, with the government, with the actors involved, with the local communities, pressing for responses and policies that deal with the problems we face as a society.





The question that arises at the moment is another: why does the government insist on not listening to the local communities which will be affected by the Mphanda Nkuwa project? Why does it insist on belittling their concerns, and masking them with a large media apparatus, to make it appear that the project is moving forward with local support? If local communities put their needs and demands forward for the advancement of the project, will these be respected and fulfilled? And if communities say they are opposed to the project as it stands, and claim their right to say no, will the government be willing to listen to them?





We believe that dialogue, and the broad participation of civil society in these types of issues, can help us start to embark on a development model that meets the needs and desires of the majority of the population, consequently reducing the social tensions and wars that we have in our country which are also caused by the exclusion of the majority of the population from decision-making processes.





The path we have been following, as a country, neither serves nor benefits the people. The attack on civil society organizations and any critical voice reflects our government’s lack of commitment to democracy and broad public participation. It is urgent that we chart new paths that lead us to peace and to a model of a country that we can be proud of – something radically different from what we are experiencing today.





*This article was originally published in Jornal Savana in Portuguese on 30th September, 2022

		

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