Involve stakeholders in Delta plan

Atwo-day conference is scheduled to be held next January on the government-proposed Delta Plan 2100 by two leading green NGOs with the purpose of getting diverse views of various stakeholders on the pros and cons of this mega plan. The government approved the plan last September through the Ecnec. The Delta plan stipulates that 2.5 percent of the GDP will be spent every year on projects. We are looking at an expenditure of up to USD 30 billion by 2030.

That means the country will be spending multi-billion dollars every year on water and land resources, but for which extensive stakeholder meetings with various interest groups have not been held. There lies the crux of the problem, especially as environmentalist groups believe that a centrally-planned, top-down programme of this magnitude will not deliver desired results. Indeed, green activists point out that a similar programme had been undertaken by the authorities back in the '60s that had resulted in the destruction of around 500 rivers in the name of development.

The need for multi-stakeholder analysis, we believe, is the right thing to do. Local conditions, climate change-related data and exhaustive analysis by field-level organisations need to be listened to before embarking on such a massive programme. It would lead to better understanding of the issues at hand, especially since the country is already experiencing the ill-effects of global warming and freak weather events, and help incorporate the changes suggested by other parties. The plan affects all of us and it is only rational that all voices are heard before we start spending billions of hard-earned foreign currency every year.