APC joins call to stop building Tipaimukh dam

NEWS RELEASE
June 23, 2009

The militant Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) joins call to stop building of Tipaimukh dam in Borak River East India. In a joint statement today, APC and Bangladesh Krishok Federation (BKF) said they are building up a strong movement against Tipaimukh Dam.

Yesterday (22 June 2009), the BKF joined the protest rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh organized by the Democratic Left Alliance (DLA) and criticized the Indian government's move to build a dam at Tipaimukh in Borak River saying that it would seriously harm the people and the environment in Bangladesh.

According to Badrul alam, BKF President, “The Bangladeshi people opposed the project from the beginning. The construction of the dam when completed in 2012 would bring about a major disaster for Bangladesh, virtually drying up the Surma and the Kushiara Rivers in winter season, which water most of the North-Eastern regions of Bangladesh. The dam would hit the people badly.”

“We denounce the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) who invested in Tipaimukh Dam. We demand that the Bangladeshi government should take action to stop Tipaimukh Dam in order to save the Bangladeshi people,” stated Danilo Ramos, APC secretary general and concurrent secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) or Peasant Movement of the Philippines.

“The construction work of the Tipaimukh Dam was postponed in March 2007 due to protests from different parts of our country and outside India. We are calling the Bangladeshi people to join our series of protests against this dam. We call on all organizations in Bangladesh and India to intensify its action and unite against the construction of Tipaimukh Dam,” added Alam.

“If the project is implemented it could deprive Bangladesh of its share of the international river that supplies water to hundreds of water bodies in the region. The dam will kill all common rivers in Bangladesh particularly the Meghna River, the biggest river in Bangladesh,” stressed Ramos.

“The Tipaimukh Dam would seriously affect not only agriculture, particularly in winter, but is also give negative ecological and environmental changes in vast areas in both Bangladesh and India that would put Bangladeshi people in danger,” ended Alam.#