September 5, 2001

PI signs letter in solidarity, calling on ADB to halt loan disbursement for the Samut Prakarn Wastewater Management Project.

Mr. Tadao Chino
President
Asian Development Bank
6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City
0401 Metro Manila, Philippines

Dear President Chino,

We, the undersigned Thai and international organizations, call on the ADB to immediately halt loan disbursements for the Samut Prakarn Wastewater Management Project in Thailand before the Bank’s Inspection Panel begins its investigation in early September 2001.

We note with dismay that project construction is nearly 70 percent completed and continues unabated, even as detailed environmental and social analyses have not been carried out or finalized, and investigations into serious allegations of corruption and policy violations are currently underway.

We are aware that the Bank currently has at least three processes in progress that are likely to affect project implementation: the Inspection Panel, an ongoing Anticorruption Unit investigation, and the follow-up of the Independent Review undertaken in May-June this year. Yet we are not aware of any substantive measures taken by the Bank to prepare for and deal with outcomes from these investigations: implementation continues as if there was no link between the actual project and the many concerns and controversies that surround it.

For example, we note that the findings of the recent ‘Independent Review’, particularly with regard to fisheries data, points both to the need for further environmental and social studies, and to the potential devastation that the project will have on the local environment and fisheries-based livelihoods of around 60,000 local residents. Yet the Bank has made no attempt to address these issues.

We note that many of these concerns have also been raised by the majority of the Thai senate, who wrote to you in December last year expressing their concern over the negative social and environmental impacts of the project, and calling for the Bank to review its support for the project.

Under these circumstances, the continuation of loan disbursements and project implementation threatens to seriously undermine the credibility of these investigations, and calls into question the Bank’s intentions, sincerity and accountability. It also points to an evident disregard for the concerns and well-being of local communities, blatantly contradicting the Bank’s stated objective of poverty alleviation.

We therefore call on the Bank to immediately halt loan disbursements for the Samut Prakarn project, at least until all current investigations have been completed, and their findings have been made public and acted upon.

Yours sincerely,

– NGO Coordinating Committee on Development (NGO-COD), Thailand
– Foundation for Ecological Recovery, Thailand
– Campaign for Alternative Industry Network, Thailand
– Thai Development Support Committee, Thailand
– Focus on the Global South (FOCUS)
– Greenpeace, Southeast Asia
– NGO Forum on ADB – International Committee, Philippines
– Mekong Watch Japan
– Fukuoka NGO Forum on the Asian Development Bank (FNA), Japan
– SUNGI Development Foundation, Pakistan
– Community Aid Abroad (Oxfam), Australia
– ACT Mekong Group, Australia
– Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), Sweden
– Probe International, Canada
– International Rivers Network, USA
– Bank Information Center (BIC), USA
– Dr. Laifungbam Debabrata Roy: Centre for Organisation Research & Education (CORE), India
– Kevin Li: Globalization Monitor, Hong Kong
– Tom Griffiths: Forest Peoples Programme, UK

Cc:

1. Mr. Naoyuki Shinohara – Director, Japan
2. Ms. N. Cinnamon Dornsife – Director, USA
3. Mr. C. Ramachandran – Director, India; Bangladesh; Bhutan; Lao People’s Democratic Republic; Tajikistan
4. Mr. Zhao Xiaoyu – Director, China
5. Mr. John S. Lockhart – Director, Australia; Azerbaijan; Cambodia; Hong Kong, China; Kiribati; Federated States of Micronesia; Nauru; Solomon Islands; Tuvalu
6. Mr. Jusuf Anwar – Director, Cook Islands; Indonesia; Fiji Islands; Kyrgyz Republic; New Zealand; Samoa; Tonga
7. Mr. Othman Jusoh – Director, Thailand; Malaysia; Myanmar; Nepal; Singapore
8. Mr. Uwe Heinrich – Director, Austria; Germany; Turkey; UK
9. Mr. Patrick Thomas – Director, Belgium; France; Italy; Spain; Switzerland
10. Mr. Jeung-Hyun Toon – Director, Republic of Korea; Papua New Guinea; Sri Lanka; Taipei, China; Uzbekistan; Vanuatu; Vietnam
11. Ms. Patricia Z. Riingen – Director, Kazakhstan; Maldives; Marshall Islands; Mongolia; Pakistan; Philippines
12. Mr. Julian Payne – Director, Canada; Denmark; Finland; Netherlands; Norway; Sweden