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Saskia de Wildt10743723
gingertheworld@gmail.com
Supervisors: Margreet Zwarteveen & Deepa Joshi Second reader: Courtney Vegelin
Graduate School of Social Sciences University of Amsterdam
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Disclaimer:P a g e
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Figure 1: Terrace farming in West-Sikkim ... 12
Figure 2: Layout of a Run-of-the-River dam ... 14
Figure 3: The location of the Chuzachen ... 17
Figure 4: Conceptual Scheme ... 23
Figure 5: Spatial distribution of local participants ... 27
Figure 6: Spatial layout of the 110 MW Chuzachen HEP... 29
Figure 7: Layout of the conceptual maps ... 30
Figure 8: Conceptual map of Environmental costs ... 31
Figure 9: Conceptual map of Ecosystem services impact ... 32
Figure 10: Conceptual map of Threats and Safety ... 34
Figure 11: Conceptual map of Livelihoods and Economic development of the state ... 36
Figure 12: Conceptual map of Land ... 38
Figure 13: Complete oversight of stakeholder themes ... 39
Figure 14: Patterns in local impacts of ecosystem services ... 48
Figure 15: Rongli, right next to the river. A woman standing next to her house, built around a boulder (Author) ... 49
Figure 16: Patterns in social impacts ... 53
Table 1: Stakeholder conceptualizations, categorized in dimensions and themes ... 28
Table 2: Oversight of discursive fragments and their plane of emergence ... 42
Table 3: Relationships between discursive formations around environmental costs ... 56
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ACT Affected Citizens of the TeestaANT Actor-Network-Theory
CDM Clean Development Mechanism
EIA Environmental Impact Assessment
EMP Environmental Management Plan
GHG Green-House-Gas
HEP Hydelpower Project
MSM Mental Sketch Map
MW Megawatt
NGO Non-Governmental-Organization
NHPC National Hydelpower Corporation PAF Project Affected Citizen
ROR Run of the River
R&R Resettlement & Rehabilitation
SDF Sikkim Democratic Front
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Chogyal King of Sikkim, before it was merged with India as its 22nd stateP a g e
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Hydropower development is currently surging in the Eastern Himalayas. This development is however associated with polarized discourses on related environmental impacts and costs as well as on the distribution of social costs and benefits. There are some implications in the literature that community voices are often ignored in hydropower policies. But is local knowledge indeed marginalized? This research asks the question of how different stakeholders within Sikkim, a small Himalayan state of India, conceptualize hydropower. And how in turn different discursive mechanisms determine whose knowledge becomes part of dominant discourses around hydropower. In order to answer these questions this research approaches the politicized environment around hydropower through theories of Foucault. Discursive relationships between actors are scrutinized on exercise of power, by conducting a multimodal Foucauldian discourse analysis. Local knowledge from around one specific project, the 110MW Chuzachen HEP is included in this analysis by adding a spatial analysis at the local scale The findings of thisresearch indicate that the three stakeholder groups had very different conceptualizations of costs and benefits. Even when the same themes emerge across stakeholder groups, they are often conceptualized in different ways. Dominant discursive formations among these groups are reinforced by building upon each other at different planes around central policymaking. These discourses are challenged through ethnically based community activism. Local knowledge of community members in Chuzachen, based on practical manifestations of such projects, remain however even marginalized.
Keywords:
Hydropower, Sikkim, Chuzachen, Political Ecology, Politicized environment, Foucault, Discourse analysis
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There is now a thesis lying right in front of you, ready to read. However in order to get this done, there were a number of hoops that I have had to jump through. One of them has been the Indian embassy, who kept calling me back to The Hague for more interviews and caused me to leave with significant delay for my fieldwork. Other hoops have been Sikkim itself, which posed a challenging area to conduct research in about such a sensitive topic. During my fieldwork I seemed to benefit tremendously from a big stroke of luck and a supplement of some local-taught ‘chaal’, (attitude). However, I would have never been able to navigate the murky waterssurrounding hydropower development in Sikkim without the numerous wonderful people I’ve met in Sikkim and the group of very supportive supervisors and contacts in the Netherlands. Sadly, not everyone can be named, due to the sensitivity of the topic, but I will gladly mention the following people, without whom this thesis would have never been written.
First of all I want to thank my supervisors Margreet Zwarteveen and Deepa Joshi. For the encouragement and guidance as well as the trust you have given me to work in such a challenging area. Mr. H. and Dr. K. for facilitating my research and offering me local guidance whenever needed. Ms. H., for providing much needed guidance through Sikkim’s permit procedures and background insights. A big chuck of acknowledgement also goes out to my wonderful assistant ms. R., without whom I wouldn’t have been able to collect such rich data and who became a close friend in the process. Mr. B. and especially mr. A. for spending so much of his time to show us around Chuzachen and introducing us to the villagers. Mr. D. for introducing me to many insightful people and generously sharing his knowledge on the topic. Ms. B., her family and their friends for providing me with a bed, lovely meals and most of all for embracing me in their culture. I want to specially mention all the hospitable farmers and community
members of the Chuzachen area and the people in Rongli who put down their work to share their knowledge with me. Government representatives who were willing to share their visions and civil society members like mr. G., mr. B. and mr. L. who patiently explained me the details about all the many complicating layers surrounding hydropower in Sikkim. Finally, I’d like to thank everybody who could not be named here, but contributed to this thesis. A special thank you to my family and friends for the fact that no matter how often I set of for an adventure and then return and lock myself in without returning calls, they are always here to receive me with open arms and genuine interest.
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Situated at the nexus of water and energy, hydropower can help meet the realities of climate change. As renewable energy, it contributes directly to a low carbon energy future. Hydropower’sflexibility supports the deployment of intermittent renewables such as wind or solar power. Multipurpose hydropower canals support adaptation to increasingly difficult hydrology by strengthening a country’s ability to regulate and store water and so resist flood and drought
shocks.
(The World Bank Group, 2009)
Scientific studies indicate that dams and reservoirs are globally significant sources of the greenhouse-gasses, carbon dioxide and, in particular, methane. The latest estimate published in a peer-review journal is that dams and reservoirs are responsible for almost a quarter of all human-caused methane emissions. This 104 million tonnes of dam methane equals
4-5% of all human-caused warming. (International Rivers, 2007)
The river has a different feel to it now. It used to flow and now there is artificial stop. The water has stopped, and then dust also stops, leading to pollution. When the water flows, the waste
also flows, which is the proper process. It has affected the natural beauty. The breeze has changed, which balances the environment. Without this ‘soothing’ breeze there is an extremely
hot experience. A dis-balance in nature and flow of water. Interview with Chuzachen local (2015)
This study examines the constructs of knowledge around costs and benefits related to hydropower development in Sikkim, India. It also looks at how conceptualizations around this topic both shape- and are shaped by the surrounding ‘politicized environment’
.
The above statements clearly demonstrate the complicated nature of hydropower and some of the polarized debates around it. These three quotes represent different conceptualizations on the topic of hydropower within the larger discourse of climate change. The World Bank, states the potential of hydropower for ‘a low carbon energy- and sustainable future’. On the other hand, thiscompletely contradicted by the international rivers institute who question the ‘cleanliness’ of hydropower and even state that hydropower contributes substantially to global warming. Finally, a community member living in the vicinity of a hydropower project in Sikkim, India, mentions localized climate change effects, as experienced in his direct surroundings. Such polarized and different ways of conceptualizing hydropower as either having a mitigating or contributing role to climate change is only one example of many other debates taking place around other
dimensions, scales and topics related to hydropower.
A good start to describe some of these debates would be to look at another statement made by the international rivers institute. That statement says that hundreds of dams are proposed in areas that are the considered the ‘wrong climate for damming rivers’. Their interactive map of
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‘climate change hotspots’, shows glacial and extremely dry areas, among others, as unsuitable for hydropower development (International Rivers, retrieved at 2015, May 14). This statement suggests that hydropower, as part of a global transition to renewable energy could be globally beneficial, but should always be critically assessed within the context of its implementation. This argument relies on theories around Himalayan land degradation, which concerns itself with the effects of increased population on deforestation, soil fertility and erosion. One of the critical responses to this theory of vulnerability focusses on how regions like the Himalayas can be represented in superlatives and as vulnerable and disaster stricken without looking at the historical, often Western, origins of such narratives. Environmental vulnerability itself can be a discourse (Bankoff, 2001). Especially this last statement cuts to the core of this thesis. If even the ecological vulnerability of the Himalayas can be seen as socially constructed and is eventually taken as generally accepted knowledge, whose knowledge is it then that becomes incorporated into discourses around hydropower? And how do some forms of knowledge become more dominant then others? In order to answer such questions, it is perhaps necessary to first take a closer look at the specific situation of Sikkim and some of the debates that have surfaced in the available background literature.Sikkim, often referred to as ‘the hidden valley of treasures’ in Buddhist folklore, consists of climatic zones that range from tropical and temperate to alpine and snow bound zones in the North. The state experiences heavy rainfall due to its proximity to the Bay of Bengal. Pre-monsoon rains occur in April-May and the Pre-monsoon itself operates normally from the month of May and continues up to early October. The South-East of Sikkim, receives most of this rain. Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, has a mean annual rainfall of 3494mm which, for comparison, accounts to twice as much rain as Western parts of Scotland receive on an annual base (Met Office, 2015). Further North and at higher altitudes, Sikkim receives less rainfall. The Northern portion of the state is cut into steep escarpments, and except for the Lachen and Lachung valleys, is not populated. Southern Sikkim is lower, has more open valleys, and is fairly well cultivated. This demographic configuration of the state is partly due to the direction of the main drainage of the Teesta and Rangit Rivers which is from the North to the South. The valleys cut by these rivers are very deep. They are relatively open towards the top, but usually attain a steep gorge when it approaches the bed of the rivers (NIC, 2015). It is partly for this reason that most of the Sikkimese communities have settled halfway the slopes and rely on groundwater sources as opposed to using the river for their daily freshwater provisioning or field irrigation.
Sikkim has a population of 610.577 people. Of this population almost 75% lives in rural areas. 34% of the population belong to the scheduled tribes of the Bhutia, Lepcha’s, Limboo’s or Tamang. The majority of its population is however Nepali (GoS, 2015a). The Lepcha’s are seen as the original inhabitants of Sikkim, they traditionally worship nature, mountains and rivers as their guardian deities. In the 16th century
the warrior like Buddhist Bhutia’s Figure 1: Terrace farming in West-Sikkim
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invaded from Tibet and settled in Sikkim. Although there is still a traditional rivalry between these groups, they are commonly seen together as the indigenous tribal community of Sikkim. Sikkim’s biggest Lepcha population now resides in the protected area of Dzongu, whereas both the North as the West of Sikkim harbour many Bhutia’s. Sikkim’s Nepali influx originates from around 1865. This influx was encouragement by the British, who were then ruling India, as a geo-political move, in the hope that Nepalese population increase would balance out the pro-Tibetan Bhutia’s (Gupta, 1975).British involvement with Sikkimese affairs during the 19th century hint at political interests
associated with Sikkim’s location between Nepal, Tibetan China and Bhutan. Sikkim functions as a corridor between two superpowers, India and china. Consequently Sikkim’s political alliances have always been scrutinized, whether it was by the British for supporting the Dalai Lama or by the Tibetans for being too close to the British. In 1950 Sikkim signed the Indo-Sikkim treaty with the newly independent nation of India, turning Sikkim into a protectorate state of India and surrendering its autocracy over external policies, defence and communication. This protectorate however had little influence on Sikkim’s internal affairs, it remained a monarchy, ruled by a Chogyal (king) and continued to have an independent status (Gupta, 1975).
When the Chogyal aimed for a more international role for Sikkim and tried to revise the Indo-Sikkim treaty mid-sixties he was backed by Bhutia and Lepcha minorities as well as educated Nepali’s. However during the early 70’s, the majority of Nepali middle and lower class started demanding the removal of the Chogyal as they felt he didn’t represent the majority of the
population. Increasing unrest lead to a political reform in the form an agreement in 1973, in which the Chogyal was stripped down to merely a constitutional token (Gupta, 1975). After a quick sequence of constitutional reforms in the next year, Sikkim turned into an associate state and later in 1975 merged with India as its 22nd state. The monarchy was removed. In some circles
this is process is called the ‘annexation of Sikkim’ by India as the ‘unclear and hasty nature’ in which it was executed, lead to questions about the democratic nature of this move (Adhikari, 2010).
At the same time that Sikkim became part of India, article 371F was introduced. Article 371F gave Sikkim a special treatment above other states, starting with the declaration that article 371F overrides the Indian constitution itself on Sikkim related matters. It Secondly, it gave the governor of Sikkim almost ‘dictatorial’ power as it is given special responsibility for peace, meaning it can dismiss an elected government if it feels it breaches the further undefined ‘peace’ of Sikkim (Adhikari, 2010). Finally 371F safeguards certain old laws regarding land and employment for the Sikkimese, inherently raising the question of who is actually Sikkimese. This last point especially is turning out to be a problem in the context of hydropower development in the state. An
increasing flow of non-Sikkimese are flowing into Sikkim as labourers and land that by the old laws are not be sold are ‘unscrupulously’ transferred to hydropower companies (Adhikari, 2010).
Sikkim, is a small Himalayan border-state of India, wedged between Nepal, China and Bhutan. It covers only 7.096 km2, but the central administration has targeted it for a total of 4300 Megawatt (MW) generated through 32 Run of the River (RoR) hydropower projects. To put this in
perspective, Sikkim’s domestic use is estimated to be only 409MW annually, a need which was met in 2012 (Dutta, 2015)
Most of the projects that are proposed within Sikkim are Run-of-the-River (RoR) projects,
meaning that they function by diverting a percentage of the river flow into a tunnel, which leads to a powerhouse down-stream where electricity is produced and the water is again released into the riverbed. ‘The Bureau of Indian Standards Code IS: 4410 defines a Run-of-the-River Power
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Station as: A power station utilizing the run of the river flows for generation of power with sufficient pondage for supplying water for meeting diurnal or weekly fluctuations of demand. In such stations, the normal course of the river is not materially altered’ (Vagholikar & Das, 2010). Such project descriptions contribute to the green washing of projects by the government of Sikkim that relies on the green rhetoric of a “pollution-free nature of hydro power, the low variable costs of generation, and the growing demand-supply gap for electricity in the country” when persuading the Sikkimese of the benefits of developing hydro-electric power’ (Liitle, 2009). The presentation of these projects as pollution free, low-cost and sustainable, is however heavily contested by several scholars and local communities. As Vagholikar and Das (2010), state, ‘ground realities (…) may be experienced quite differently’First of all, all RoR dams in Sikkim have walls exceeding 15 metres, in order to account for seasonal flows and to peak during the lean season. This, contrary to the picture of minimal disturbance that might have been evoked by the term ‘Run-of-the-river’, qualifies them as ‘large dams’ according to the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD). Although officially, 10 to 15 percent of the river should be allowed to flow freely through the riverbed in the lean season, in reality the near drying up of rivers can be observed directly downstream of such dams (Huber, 2010). Repeated interruption of the rivers natural flow by reservoir or cascade dams have even led to the drying up of the river in summer downstream in Bangladesh (The Asia Foundation, 2013). Secondly, these projects need extensive construction work. Not only the dam site itself,
but also the construction of roads and the dumping of the resulting debris from project tunnels require the buying of land which displaces people and ‘puts
additional pressure on already scarce arable land resources’ (Huber, 2010). Moreover, project tunnels are constructed under the ground through the mountain, by rock-blasting - the use of explosives. This rock blasting is associated with cracks in houses, landslides and the drying up of local springs, increasing the amount of project-affected-persons. The disposal of huge amounts of rock and debris as a result from tunnelling is turning out to be another huge
environmental challenge. Indiscriminate dumping of excavated material in steep valleys with little available flat land has been another cause of serious social impacts and environmental violations (Vagholikar & Das, 2010).
There is furthermore, the element of risk. Sikkim lies in a high seismic risk zone IV/V on top of a tectonic fault line that stretches along the whole Himalayan mountain range. Additionally, Sikkim also records the highest amount of annual rainfall compared to other Indian states. During monsoon season Sikkim is constantly dealing with landslides, floods and riverbank erosion (GoS 2015b). How does hydropower development interplay with these elements of risk? Do
earthquake safeguards take into account the multitude of dams on one river? How are riverbanks impacted by the fluctuation of water levels? And looking at more long term environmental risks, how does hydropower intersect with climate change? Global warming is already affecting glaciers, but long term effect of these receding glaciers on river basins and millions of people directly depending on these rivers is less clear. How will excessive damming intersect with this process? And how will climate change on its turn intersect with mega-dams in terms of for example productivity?
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The debate around environmental impact of hydropower projects in Sikkim also contain a religious dimension. The Lepcha’s, now settled mainly in the protected area of Dzongu,traditionally regard nature, mountains and rivers as integrally connected to themselves. There is a deep-ecological understanding of humans and nature as being part of one and the same eco-sphere. Much of this spiritual history remains at the core of Lepcha culture and has become part of their anti-dam movement under the banner of Affected Citizens of the Teesta (ACT) (Little, 2009). The Bhutia community, which predominantly reside in the West of Sikkim, have equally been involved in anti-dam protest. Especially the proposition of projects on the sacred, Rathong Chu River in the West has provoked protest on religious ground by several groups among which Sikkim Bhutia Lepcha Apex Committee (SIBLAC). Protest such as these have eventually even led to several projects on this river to be scrapped. It should be mentioned however that some of these decisions were conveniently timed just before elections and that a new project on the same river has been proposed later, which is currently under construction, the 99MW Tashiding HEP (Huber 2010).
Apart from the above ecological question marks, there is also an ongoing discussion on socio-economic and socio-political issues related to hydropower. Hydropower development in Sikkim is directly tied to larger economic growth policies of India. The insufficient availability of power has contributed to a slowing rate of economic growth of the nation. India is dealing with an expected rise of 350% in energy demand the next two decades as well as a commitment to reduce green-house-gas (GHG) emissions. It is therefore looking for a market based solution to these
problems through investing heavily in hydropower-projects. In order to meet the goals of increasing energy supply as well as less fossil fuel dependency, India has planned to generate 100.000 megawatts between 2012 and 2017 through dams and run-of-the river projects in its Himalayan region states. 4,300 MW worth of those projects will be implemented in Sikkim (The Asia foundation, 2013).
However, there seems to be more to the development of hydropower than just fulfilling a national duty. Hydropower is sometimes presented as capitalizing on the wealth of the river which is otherwise washed away (Huber, 2010). Any project that is implemented in Sikkim provides 12% of the generated energy to state governments, which can then sell that 12% off to the national grid and turn it into revenue. Taking into account that the North-East of India is one of the wettest regions of the country and that there is a lack of interstate agreements on the sharing of water resources, it is understandable that individual states like Sikkim see and support hydropower as a boost for their state development (Joy, Mahanta and Das 2014).
The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) which is ruling the state since 1993 is presenting hydropower revenue as a mean to boost economic growth and eradicate poverty. The
government expects to finance large parts of its rural development agenda through the revenue generation by these projects. Locally, the construction of dams might lead to employment or connectivity to markets or in some cases to provision of electricity. Infrastructure like roads and bridges that have been built to construct these hydropower project become accessible to local populations as well, potentially connecting them to markets that they were previously isolated from. Additionally, local economies often boost during construction periods (Huber, 2010). However literature suggests that the distribution of risks and benefits seem to be skewed in terms of scales and groups (The Asia Foundation, 2013). On a state level questions can be raised on economic desirability. Only 12% of the generated energy stays in the state that provides it, whereas many of the environmental risks are specifically state, or dam site located (Baruah, 2012). Dams are furthermore likely to cost on average almost twice the estimated costs. They also on average take 44% more time than scheduled to finish and only generate 80% of the targeted value. Increasing costs can discount the rate of return to an average of zero, making the
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asset essentially stranded, or even negative if the dams generates less than predicted(Ansar, Flyvbjerg, Budzier and Lunn, 2014).
State governance policies prioritizing hydropower development are also impacting local socio-economical livelihoods. Many people around these dam sites practice agricultural livelihoods. A commonly heard problem is that these farmers become landless after they have spent the money that was received by selling their land (Chandy,Keenan, Petheram, and Shepherd, 2012). Other problems originate from changes in the local ecosystems directly impacting local communities in terms of water and food security. For example the mining of boulders, cobbles and pebbles have increased siltation and sandcasting, affecting agricultural practices and the hydrology of the river (Baruah, 2012). Whereas underground tunnelling has been associated with the drying up of springs and agricultural land, affecting local farmers directly in their primary needs.
The above debates raise many questions. Who benefits ultimately? In whose interest are these projects? Is it the central government of India that needs power in order to secure its position as an emerging market? Is it the state of Sikkim that envisions high rates of revenue? Or are local communities equally benefitting by this development through poverty alleviation and rural development as the proponents of hydropower are stating? But is there such a thing as a homogenized group of local communities? Are all local impacts felt equally? And again, more importantly for this thesis, whose knowledge is included in answering such questions?
When juxtaposing the socially desirable and environmentally sustainable image that is presented by the drivers of hydropower with the criticism that has been raised by several scholars and civil society activists, it becomes clear that there is a huge discrepancy in the ways that hydropower is presented in Sikkim. This thesis takes that there is not one shared reality, only a multiplicity of practices processes and outcomes. However, when one dominant group claims the ‘truth’ over another group, when reality is defined through the eyes of experts or policies are justified through one form of knowledge, the construct of truth becomes about power. The focus of this thesis is thus not so much to proof one group wrong over the other, neither is it the focus to reconcile such polarized discourse in order to conclude a with shared ‘truth’. The focus is rather to uncover the rules to the game of truth. To find out how different versions of knowledge and the ‘truth’ either shape or challenge particular discourses around hydropower and how discursive structures are used to exercise power. It does so by approaching the politicized environment through a post-structural, discursive approach. It looks at linkages between different claims to the truth and the exercise of power inspired by theories on knowledge and power of Foucault.
For this research three different stakeholder groups were interviewed within Sikkim on their conceptualizations of the costs and benefits around hydropower development. Firstly, the ‘proponents’ of hydropower development in Sikkim, consisting of state and private actors. Secondly, the ‘opponents’, consisting of civil society members like activists, community- and NGO representatives academics and journalists. And finally, the ‘locals’, consisting of community members in the vicinity of one specific hydropower project, The 110MW Chuzachen Hydelpower Project (HEP), in the sub-division of Rongli, within the East district of Sikkim, as indicated on the map.
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Figure 3: The location of the ChuzachenHEP in East Sikkim (Source GoS, 2015; ESRI)
This thesis is built around two main questions:
1. ‘How are costs and benefits around hydropower conceptualized among and across different stakeholders?’
2. ‘Which and whose conceptualizations become dominant and how, or how not?’ In order to answer those questions, this thesis lays out a theoretical framework in the second chapter which discusses the concepts of ‘the politicized environment’, the ‘politics of knowledge’ ‘the local’ and the role of ‘space’ in the construct of reality. In short, the politicized environment is shaped by different interest based groups and their coalitions through which discursive flows shape relationships of power. The politics of knowledge is the struggle for ‘truth’, the application of discursive mechanisms and the valuation or devaluation of several types of knowledge, which eventually construct a social reality around hydropower. It shortly immerses in the discussion around the ‘local’ and taps into a common critique against political ecologists in which the binary division between global and local scales assumes power differences a priori. Such assumptions are dismissed through theories of Foucault who takes that power flows multi-directionally and that power structures are thus as much repressive as they are empowering. The third chapter describes the research design, methodology and analytical steps that have been made to
generate certain findings. The fourth and fifth chapter present and discusses the outcomes of this process around both research questions. These chapters first present a descriptive layout of different conceptualizations, after which it describes emerging discursive patterns. The second part attempts to divide two dominant discursive strands into the discursive formations that form the body of knowledge around these discourses. This analysis scrutinizes the conducted interviews on discursive mechanisms associated with the exercise of power. In the final, conclusive chapter, these outcomes are interpreted and transformed into answers to the
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research questions. This final chapter also reflects on the research methods, limitations, credibility and ethical considerations of this research.The objective of this research is to give more insight on how discourses around hydropower are never neutral but socially constructed, framed by dominant discourses and by a constant struggle of power. This thesis sets out to get a detailed view of local community perspectives around the 110MW Chuzachen HEP and how these perspectives either confirm or challenge dominant discourses and existing power structures at the state scale.
The academic relevance of this thesis lies in a critical unpacking of the ‘local’ stakeholder. Certain assumptions about the local scale, have led to criticism about representation of local communities as political marginal or as being researched as one group with inherent,
homogenizing traits. This research contributes to the overall body of academic knowledge by providing detailed insight in local knowledge and critically assessing its position again other forms of knowledge.
The social relevance of this thesis lies in its recognition that conceptualizations around costs and benefits are far from uniform across but also among stakeholder groups. Some groups are however not as well-represented in policy making or knowledge constructs around hydropower implementation as other groups. In order to assess whether hydropower development is truly effective, sustainable and socially inclusive in the long term, it is necessary to gain more insight in all forms of knowledge. Especially those which challenge the generally accepted body of knowledge. By addressing the issue of knowledge politics, this thesis gives more insight in the mechanisms through which different knowledge is often valuated or de-valuated in dominant discursive strands around hydropower.
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This chapter discusses the theoretical approach and the main concepts of this research. It starts with a disciplinary description of political ecology and the way in which it will be applied for this research. The chapter discusses the two main concepts of this thesis, the politicized environment and the politics of knowledge. The politicized environment is most of all an ontological discussion around the nature of relationships between different actors and their environment which together shape the contextual reality in which this research takes place. The politics of knowledge is an epistemological exploration of theories from Foucault who connects knowledge, discourse and power to these relationships. This chapter also elaborates on critiques around political ecology and the negligence of space in Foucault’s work and explains what position this thesis takes on these debates. The final section ties all these concepts visually together in a conceptual scheme.This research takes political ecology as an approach to study the junction of social and environmental impacts related to hydropower development. Political ecology is a scientific discipline that was developed during the 1970’s as a critical answer to the absence of political economic enquiries in environmental research. Political ecology is multi-disciplinary, originating from radical development geography and cultural ecology, but including elements of political economy, anthropology and ecology. Although the discipline has passed through multiple theoretical approaches, its underlying assumption - one that I adopt for this thesis, is that politics and environment are everywhere thoroughly inter connected. ‘Political ecology examines the political dynamics surrounding material and discursive struggles over the environment in the third world and are thus keen to understand the dynamics and properties of a politicized environment' (Bryant, 1998). In order to define this larger ‘politicized environment and how local activities are placed within it, political ecologist have turned towards a multitude of societal theories. The discipline started with Neo-Malthusianism and Neo-Marxism in the 70’s, linking environmental degradation to class-relationships and global capitalism. From the late 80’s on it eventually developed a sensitivity to discourses and relationships of power between actors that influence aspects of the environment (Bryant, 1998, Paulson, Gezon and Watts, 2003). It is this trail of post-structural political ecology that this thesis will follow.
So how does discourse relate to political ecology? How does discourse play out at the
intersection of politics and ecology? Ontologically, this thesis follows the post-structural approach to nature and society as socially produced through history, science, myth, discourse and other processes (Escobar, 1996). Where structuralism tries to uncover an underlying structure of reality through studying language, post-structuralism claims that reality is at the same time also shaped by language. Society is not a single pre-existing reality. Reality and truth are shaped through multiple processes and practices among which language and discourse. Post-structuralism therefore meets political ecology when one group claims dominance in the construction of truth around, in this case hydropower, above another group (Muller, 2015). ’Ecological arguments are never socially neutral any more than socio-political arguments are ecologically neutral’ (Harvey 1993 in Bryant, 1998). This quote clarifies how arguments, statements or the use of language in general, combined with unequal relationships of any sort are in fact political and in essence about power.
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Bryant mentions in his historical overview of the discipline of political ecology that a socially constructed ‘truth’ can form a source of power to whoever benefits from applying this truth in order to fulfil their own interests. Political and economic elites have for example sought to justify and even de-politicize unequal patterns of environmental exploitation by using terminology like ‘the greater social good’. This claim of the ‘greater good’ is often contested by other groups, who have different conceptualizations around ‘the greater good’ based on more locally basedinterests and knowledge (Bryant, 1998). Political ecology has however also been criticized for their epistemological approaches of placing the ‘local’ within the larger ‘global’ context. The critical argument runs that the application of such binary distinctions are often discursively linked to a more ‘political economic’ nature of hierarchical higher scales and a ‘cultural ecological’ nature of local scales. Such assumed scalar qualities by political ecologists, have led to certain preferences for the local scale. This preference is called the ‘local trap’ (Brown and Purcell, 2005).
Brown and Purcell (2005) lay out three theoretical principles around scale from geography, in order to counter the conception of inherent local qualities. Firstly, scale is socially constructed. Meaning there are no inherent traits to either the local, or the global scale. Secondly scale is produced by political struggle and therefore fluid as well as fixed (through hegemonic periods) in space and time, implying there is no such thing as a local scale. Thirdly, scale is a relational idea, which functions as a structural framework through which discursive flows can take place between stakeholders.
This thesis follows the above guidelines in order to prevent falling in the ‘local trap’. It has an explicit focus on the third principle, the relational aspect, while at the same time leaving aside the concept of scale in favour of an emphasis on actors. The scalar debate by itself is too large to include in this section, but in short consists of an epistemological and ontological debate on whether relationships between actors should be measured along a vertical structure of scales, horizontal structures of space, a combination thereof or that they live in a flat ontology and shouldn’t be analysed through any of the above, but within flat ontology (Neumann, 2009). A post-structural political ecological approach, based on theories of Foucault operates within a flat ontology through tracing relationships between groups, regardless of scale. It traces differences between several interest groups to analyse conflicts and coalitions around hydropower
development. Such groups are generally distinguished as proponents or opponents and discursive conflicts between these two groups are played out through strategic coalitions that strengthen their position (Bahgel and Nusser, 2010). The actor oriented approach is useful in avoiding the local trap, as it recognizes the heterogeneity of groups based on interest, regardless of scales. Groups which would otherwise be classified into unifying scalar terms like for example the ‘state’ or the ‘local’ can now be broken down into coalitions with other actors across scalar concepts.
What does local actually mean if it is de-coupled from its scalar association? What constitutes a group to be local instead of non-local? What role does space play in the forming of such groups? Taking from the Actor-Network-Theory (ANT), it could be said that different actor-coalitions are all equally local. There is no such thing as a dis-local event (Latour, 2005). Everything takes place somewhere. Even global political decisions, like the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) that manifests in a multiplicity of local dam sites has been forged in a conference building that has a spatial locality. In this case somewhere in Kyoto. Even if the results of this political mechanism manifest in many other spatial localities, it doesn’t mean that these localities are more local than the place where the policy has been shaped. ANT rather speaks of connections that shape and relate to other networks. By connecting one local point with another local point through many intermediate points, it creates a flat ontology. A reality that is neither structured by vertical hierarchical scalar dimensions, not by horizontal spatial concepts of scale. One place can merely be more centrally connected than other places, creating a difference between what would conventionally be called global or local. Local interaction is therefore not just local, but rather a
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congregation ‘of all other local interactions distributed elsewhere in time and space’ (Latour, 2005)But what happens if the local interaction in question takes place in an environment that is often portrayed as a, ‘fragile and poorly accessible landscapes with sparsely scattered settlements and poor infrastructure’ (ICIMOD, 2010)? Where hydropower projects are implemented in
‘far flung and remote locations of the country’ (NHPC, 2015). What kind of influence does such a ‘remoteness’, or more importantly discourses thereof, have on the connections between these scattered project based settlements and places of central decision making? And in which ways are environments re-produced once a hydropower has been constructed in such a far flung location? What kind of relationships can there be found between the environment, community knowledge and connections with other groups? From a post-structural perspective it could easily be argued that space and environment are as much social constructed as society itself. Can spaces and environmental qualities therefore also be constructed as certain truths, contributing to strategies and tactics of actors that seek to use space for particular ends (Crampton & Elden, 2007, p194)?
Foucault predominantly focussed on time, or more specific the historical construction of discourse, arguably leaving a gap in his work regarding geography and space. Geography has acted as a support, but never really looked into as a relationship of power in itself. In (Gordon, 1980), Foucault expresses at the end of his interview with the French journalists of the critical magazine Heredote, his interest in analysing the formation of discourse and the construct of knowledge in terms of spatial strategies like ‘control of territories and organisations of domain’ (Gordon,1980, pp. 77). How does knowledge shape the environment and how does the environment in turn shape knowledge? This thesis takes one of Foucault’s concepts, the ‘dispotive’ to explore the relationship between the environment and knowledge. Put shortly, the dispotive is the interplay between discursive practices, action and the manifestations of both of them. However, before moving on to the dispotive, first there should be established how discourse actually constitutes relationships of power.
This research has chosen the work of Foucault as a theoretical and methodological inspiration because of how it directly links the constructs of knowledge to relationships of power. This is useful as such a link ties the two main research questions of this thesis together - the relationship between stakeholder knowledge, and their placement within the overall politicized environment. So, where did Foucault position himself on post-structuralism, knowledge, power and space? How does this thesis position itself against Foucault? First of all, there is a compatibility between post-structural, political ecological focus on struggles between different groups on environmental policy making and Foucault’s concept of the struggle for existence. Both argue that different groups derive their position of power based on a claim to the truth. Both recognize the use of discourse and the role of knowledge in the construction of truth. But how is truth, on which we base our knowledge constructed? How do certain forms of knowledge in its turn constitute truth? Who and how is decided whose knowledge is deemed valid in the construction of truth? What kind of power relationships are in play? All such questions indicate mechanisms that will be referred to in this thesis as the ‘politics of knowledge’.
Foucault first of all takes on the construct of knowledge itself. He mentions ‘a return of
knowledge’. What he means by this, is that low ranking, naïve, critical forms of knowledge, the ones that are individually produced and not supported by globalized or scientific discourses which are engaged in a struggle for existence. This struggle for existence is linked to power. Naïve knowledge, is the kind of knowledge that often vanquished from functional and systematic
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historical thoughts. It is low on the hierarchical range, popular, non-scientific, particular and differentiated, incapable of unity. It is this kind of knowledge, a variety of truth, that struggles to exist in the margins of what Foucault calls ‘the tyranny of globalizing discourses’. An exact definition of discourse is hard to find in Foucault’s work, although there are certain characteristics that can be attributed to what Foucault sees as dominant discourses. First of all, discourse is a ‘claim to a unitary body of theory’, based on ‘true’ versions of knowledge, which are in itself again based on historically constructed discursive strands. Discourse is a self-reinforcing cycle, which can crystalize into relations of power through institutions, science and law, which in turnreproduce these discourses of truth once again in order to justify its own existence. If one wants to participate in a society, one must therefore speak the truth. Generally accepted, or
institutionalized versions of truth therefore shape a sort of playing field for knowledge. Such playing fields are historically constructed and are either confirmed or challenged by naïve, localized forms of truths (Gordon, 1980, pp. 83-92).
This playing field and the struggle of different kinds of knowledge for existence is described by Foucault as a ‘net’. The mazes of this net fall over different interest based coalitions and groups and represent relations of power between these actors. The mazes are fluid, power flowing in all directions through which some kind of structure is provided for the ‘politicized environment’ through which the politics of knowledge can play out. Foucault, who neither aligns himself with structuralism, nor post-structuralism, rejects these relationships as purely structural. Discursive flows of power are everywhere’ and run multi-directional. Not just between groups and collective individuals but also between power and discourse. ‘We are subjected to the production of truth through power and we cannot exercise power except through the production of truth’ (Gordon, 1980, pp. 93). Such an explanations of power refer to the fact that power only manifests itself through a relational practice. This thesis therefore takes power as an integral part of discursive relationships and the construct of knowledge.
Foucault proposes the possibility of linking objects to the relationships that constitute the net of power, creating heterogeneous assemblages that together constitute meaning to whatever reality they describe. Reality is created by meaning. When the discourse around an object changes it becomes a different object, it loses its previous identity (Jager & Maier, 2009). To give an example of how discourse constitutes meaning to an object or reality, one could take the example of how certain parts of the world were rendered unsafe by European explorers before the 19th century. These same areas were later described as disease ridden during the colonial
era, or as poverty stricken in more recent times, to finally as disaster-prone most recently (Bankoff, 2001). Such realities are created through discourses mediated through active subjects or institutions. These active subjects are co-producers and agents of reality shaping discourses. They do this through both discursive and non-discursive practices. The dispotive relates all three components of reality, discourse and action together by taking discourse as what is said or written, non-discursive practices as active implementation of knowledge and objects or products as the manifestations of the former two (Jager & Maier, 2009). How is the local environment a manifestation of discursive practices? How do hydropower projects in turn shape local
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The conceptual scheme below ties all the above concepts together in the dispotive and shows that conceptualizations around hydropower are produced in a politicized discursive environment which is in constant motion. This discursive environment crystalizes into institutional policies and power relationships, the green arrows, which flow within and among networked groups across and within space. The ‘politics of knowledge’ refers to the exercise of power between different individuals or groups through discursive relationship that either conform or resist different forms of knowledge. This research assesses how hydropower development and its cost and benefits are conceptualized by different groups, coalitions and individuals. It has a specific focus on the construct of local knowledge and how it relates to other forms of knowledge and discourses in the larger politicized environment through relationships of power.
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This methodology chapter first gives an overview of the research design and the research questions. The chapter continues by elaborating on which methodologies were used to collect and analyse the data.For this research I have conducted a mixed method, case-study of the 110MW Chuzachen HEP in East Sikkim to answer the following research questions.
MAIN QUESTION
1. ‘How are costs and benefits around hydropower conceptualized among and across different stakeholders?’
2. Which and whose conceptualizations become dominant and how, or how not? SUBQUESTIONS
3. What role does the environment play in the construct of local knowledge and local exercise of power?
4. How does the 110MW Chuzachen HEP recreate local territories in terms of unified experiences?
The research design of this thesis is built up from elements of grounded theory, the Actor Network Theory (ANT) as well as theories from Foucault. Both Foucault ideas on social constructs as well as methodological guidelines of the ANT- and grounded theory have had implications for this research design and its methodologies. One of them is that this research did not use an operationalization of costs and benefits around hydropower prior to the stage of data collection. From Foucault’s views on categorization it follows that the concepts of risks and benefits around hydropower should be categorized through communities itself. He gives the example of taxonomy of animals in a Chinese dictionary in which the categorizations of these animals are as following, those ‘belonging to the emperor’, those ‘tamed’, those which are ‘fabulous’ and those ‘which from a great distance look like flies’. Foucault argues that this categorization has no worse claim to validity than the categorizations that are used in contemporary biology textbooks, it is merely shaped within the generally accepted body of knowledge at that specific moment in time and space (Schneck, 2014). Latour (2005) confirms this through stating that ’The task of defining and ordering the social should be left to the actors themselves, not taken up by the analyst’. ANT suggests following the trails that are set out by the object of research in much the same way as grounded theory constantly feeds into its own design by analysing the data that is gathered during the process of data collection.
Translating theories of Foucault into a methodological application is not an easy task. His work is mainly conceptual and theoretical and where he has retrospectively laid out certain
methodological techniques in his work, one has to distinguish first between different ontological and epistemological phases that Foucault has gone through himself. This thesis therefore takes it
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methodological cues from Jager and Maier’s Dispotive Analysis which approaches Foucault’s work in such a way that discursive materialization can be included as part of thepower/knowledge relationship (Wodek, 2013). Specific methodological steps can be identified from this approach and have translated in this thesis in the following manner.
- Make a synchronic cut to identify what is being said at a particular time and place. - Identify discursive strands – which are thematically uniform discourse processes.
- Detect discursive and non-discursive fragments within the strands and classify the planes that they emerge from like, politics, activism, daily life, administration etc.
- How do these planes relate to each other? (Jager and Maier 2009)
These steps should reveal the discursive relationships between different groups and show how certain knowledge is included or excluded in dominant discourses. Foucault himself also mentioned certain methodological precautions for analysing the mechanisms of power through discourse. One shouldn’t for example concern oneself with mechanisms of power flowing from the centre, but should instead observe the extremities, where power is translated into action and observed most clearly. He also advises against inquiring about conscious intentions or aims around the exercise of power, but sees the exercise of power as self-evident and externally observable by practise and effects. A final precaution refers to the realisation that power is something which circulates, or functions as a net between individuals. This net exist in a
continuous war-like state, expanding and shrinking and constantly changing the game of power. Individuals simultaneously undergo and exercise power. Foucault sees them as the ‘vehicles of power’, through which such struggles of knowledge, truth and thus power are as much practised as experienced (Gordon 1980, pp.98). It is through these methodological steps and precautions that the data that was gathered in the field for this thesis, was interpreted and analysed.
For this case-study, actors were selected based on their assumed interests around hydropower. A rough distinction was made between hydro opposition, hydro proposition and local-based versus non local-based actors. By local, this thesis refers to the territories that surround the specific project site of the 110MW Chuzachen HEP. These criteria translated into the three stakeholder groups of proponent, opponents and locals.
Although the extensive hydropower development in Sikkim is part of a larger national scheme to tap India’s natural resources, the state is assumed to happily comply with this development. With a privately negotiated rate of Rs 20.000 per Megawatt (MW), and a 12% share in generated electricity, the North-eastern states are expected to float in Hydro dollars, just like the Arabs float in petrodollars (Hussain 2008, p112). The state cooperates with national public developers and private market actors like dam building industry associations, engineering companies and local contractors. This group of national policy makers, public as well as private developers and state authorities, form the interest group of dam proponents in this thesis.
The dam opponents consist in this case of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), activist groups, journalists and critical scholars. This group opposes the construction of dams in Sikkim mostly on environmental and ethnic lines. The fear is that hydropower implementation on such a big scale will impact Sikkim’s already fragile environment and cultural profile (Vagholikar & Das, 2010). There is furthermore concern about the long term effect on river flows and the intersection of climate change with the cumulative effect of a multitude of dams (Vagholikar & Das, 2010). These two groups of proponents and opponents are non-local based actors. Therefore a local-based stakeholder group consisting of individual community members around the 110MW Chuzachen HEP was selected to include locally constructed knowledge, without assuming opposition or advocacy within this group.
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The opponents were selected first, as a purposefully stratified sample based on the objectives of the respective organizations or communities that they represent. The community members around the 110MW Chuzachen HEP, were sampled next and interviewed with the help of an assistant. The sampling took place in two stages. Our first sample was a combination of purposefully stratified and opportunistic sampling. Participants in different settlements were stratified based on whether they felt they had benefitted or were impacted by the project and supplemented with opportunistic encounters. The stratification was done under guidance of a gatekeeper, a well-connected local inhabitant. All these initial interviews took between 15 and 30 minutes and gave us a good idea of the variety of issues and themes in the area. Based on these interviews we selected a maximum of 4 stratified key participants per settlement who reflected different social positions and experiences for a second visit to conduct a mental sketch mapping exercise. Based on both the opponent and the community interviews and maps, a typical case sampling was conducted to select the group of proponents that we wanted to interview. This typical case sampling, was supplemented by opportunistic and snowball samples.The data was gathered according to a mixed method approach. Predominantly consisting of qualitative data; unstructured and semi-structured interviews, conversations, photographs and sketches as well as Mental Sketch Maps (MSM). Supplemented by quantitative Global
Positioning System (GPS) data and secondary data in the form of websites and political publications. This research consisted of 65 interviews. Of these, 11 were conducted with opponents, 11 with proponents and 43 with local community members. Apart from these interviews, 16 Mental-Sketch-Maps have been made by local community members.
The MSM method is used as a socially appropriate data collection method in an environment with expected low literacy rates. Furthermore, the method triggered memories of daily activities and enabled the participants to add data with a spatial dimension to their story. In this exercise key-respondents were asked to sketch their surroundings, the places they would visit in a regular week and which they would call ‘their’ environment. After an average of 15 to 20 minutes of unguided sketching, we ask them to point out several thematic landmarks like, groundwater springs, religious landmarks, roads, occurrences of landslides etc. (see appendix A for the whole list).
The map below shows the communities and participants that were visited for this research. The coloured points indicate individual participants per community. There will however be no more individual markers beyond this first map in order to safeguard the anonymity of the respondents. Instead rough community outlines, traced from satellite images will from this point on be used in graduated colour maps showing percentages, means or proportional charts, which are always clearly defined per map. Terminology will switch between communities and individuals, depending on whether data can be generalized beyond the individual.
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Figure 5: Spatial distribution of local participants
The analysis of the complete dataset was conducted in two stages, with the first stage informing the second. First, following a constructivist grounded theory approach the interviews were open coded, line-by-line with as much as possible in-vivo coding, to maintain the use of language for later stages of data analysis. The codes were then organized under emerging themes in the interviews. This process was repeated separately for all stakeholders in order to distinguish between stakeholder specific narratives and to easily demonstrate any differences between those. The findings of this process are presented in thematic maps, which provide a visual layout of different dimensions, themes and variables that were brought up by different groups. Together these maps are able to answer the first research question, ‘How are costs and benefits around hydropower conceptualized among and across different stakeholders?’
More insight is however needed in order to answer the second research question, ‘which and whose conceptualizations become dominant and how, or how not?’ This second question is analysed and answered through a Foucauldian discourse analysis. The analysis focusses on two discursive strands that emerged from the first analysis and focusses deeper on them in the remainder of the fifth chapter. The discourse analysis was done based on representative documents, websites, articles and conducted interviews of the stakeholder groups in order to position their discourses in relation to one another. In this step of analysis, attention is paid to relationships of power emerging between the different stakeholder groups. What kind of
discourses are connected to hydropower in Sikkim and how does local knowledge measure up to this discursive environment? Each theme, additionally consists of a spatial analysis of local stakeholder knowledge in ArcMap. These spatial representations are based on geo-referenced local conceptualizations in order to gain insight in what is being said where and whether there are any patterns that suggest specific project-created territories or specific relationships between knowledge and the environment.
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This chapter can be regarded as a synchronic discursive cut at a specific point in time and space. It shows the different themes that have emerged among and across several groups in the conducted interviews for this research regarding costs and benefits around hydropowerdevelopment. In order to analyse the stakeholder interviews, they were first deconstructed into codes and then reconstructed into emerging themes. The first thing that became clear after re-construction of the whole data set in one table, is that not one dimension was conceptualized in the same way by all the stakeholder groups. In some cases stakeholder groups were concerned with completely different themes than other stakeholders. Within the dimension of land for example, the experts would stress the indigenous rights to land, which wasn’t mentioned as a concern around the local communities of Chuzachen. In other cases stakeholders would discuss the same themes, but would conceptualize something as a cost, whereas other groups
conceptualized that same phenomena as a benefit. This was exceptionally clear within the dimension of economic development. Where most proponents would link revenue generation directly to inclusive development, opponents would view the economic aspect of hydropower as a financial risk for the state. Sometimes the stakeholders did not conceptualize themes into costs and benefits all together, but for example in impacts and safeguards, as in the case of environmental impacts. Ecological accountability Environmental impact Environmental impact Environmental impact Environmental impact Environmental safeguards Trade-off Impact on springs Impact on river
flow
Threats & Safety Threats & safety
State revenue Development
Livelihoods Employment Employment CSR/ facilities Compensation roads Land-use Land-selling procedures Land-selling procedures Land-selling procedures
Corruption Having a political voice
Table 1: Stakeholder conceptualizations, categorized in dimensions and themes
The table shows the local stakeholders as divided into two groups. This was done because it became apparent during the thematic reconstruction of the coded interviews, that community members living on roughly two different sides of the project site mentioned different themes. A site map (map 4) is included order to give some insight in the 110MW Chuzachen HEP and the spatial layout of these two local groups. The Chuzachen HEP consists of two dams, placed on opposite sides of the Chuzachen Mountain. On the one side lies the Rangpo River, which is dammed by the Rangpo-dam. On the other side lies the Rongli River, which is dammed by the Rongli-dam. Both dams divert water through separate tunnels that join each other underground in the middle of the mountain and continues as one towards the direction of the powerhouse. This tunnel resurfaces at the valve house, where the water is released through the penstock to the powerhouse which lies next to the Doban (where two rivers meet). After generating
electricity, the water is released back into the riverbed. The map below represents different environmental elements of 110MW Chuzachen HEP. Apart from the tunnels, dams and
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powerhouse it also shows dumpsites, where the material excavated for the tunnels have been dumped and are still barren. It also shows the location of the Adits, which are gated access-tunnels to the main project access-tunnels. Each of these Adits serve as an unintended, artificial water source for the surrounding communities due to its drainage of groundwater from the mountain as well as what is locally seen as a leak of the tunnel.Figure 6: Spatial layout of the 110 MW Chuzachen HEP
On the Rongli (Southern) slope, people live right next to the riverside, in a valley, relatively easy to access by road. The biggest settlement on this side is the town of Rongli, centred on the main road, mostly indicated by the name,’ Rongli bazar’. On the Rangpo (Northern) slope, people live in settlements that are scattered around the mountain slope, most of which are difficult to access by road.
This chapter elaborates on what has been said about the emerged dimensions, through thematic maps. The maps show themes, variables and their indicators along a spectrum that shows whether these themes were either conceptualized as a hydropower related cost, in the red section of the bar, or more positively as a benefit or safeguard, in the green section of the bar (see figure 5). The only dimension which was not represented in a thematic map is the one of political practices. This theme purely referred to practice and this thesis takes all practices as non-discursive. It does therefore not further elaborate on political practices as a discursive theme in this chapter, but discusses the theme in the following chapter as part of non-discursive,
practices directly interplaying with discursive relationships. The thematic maps below will include a short description of the traced controversies between stakeholder conceptualizations and the most interesting findings per theme.
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The impact of hydropower on the natural environment was consistently referred to in terms of costs or safeguards, because there were no benefits associated to this theme. This first thematic map therefore presents the stakeholder conceptualization along a spectrum of impacts and safeguards. All three stakeholder groups, including the proponents recognize the environmental costs associated with hydropower projects. The variables around environmental costs that emerged at the local level, differed however between the Rangpo and Rongli groups. Environmental costs were locally described in terms of how certain processes or aspects of hydropower project implementations would impact different aspects of the natural environment. All groups agreed on the direct impact of the dam on the river flow.The river has a different feel to it now. It used to flow and now there is artificial stop. The water has stopped, and then dust also stops, leading to pollution. When the water flows, the waste also flows, which is the proper process. It has affected the natural beauty. The breeze has changed, which balances the environment. Without
this ‘soothing’ breeze there is an extremely hot experience. A dis-balance in nature and flow of water. (Interview with Chuzachen local (2015)
The Rangpo side of Chuzachen included however other aspects of the project beyond the effect of the dam on the river. The use of explosives and their resulting landslides as well as impacts associated with the project tunnels on nearby springs were for example mentioned on this side of the mountain. Such impacts resulting from construction activities were also mentioned by the opponents. The group of proponents confirmed that hydropower projects have indeed had some impact on groundwater springs and the river-basin in general as well as aquatic life in particular, but much more weight was given to environmental safeguarding measures. Afforestation
programs and the protection of forest land as well as guidelines on the percentage of water that is allowed to be diverted from the river and obligatory Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) were some of the safeguards that have been mentioned.
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Figure 8: Thematic map ofEnvironmental costs
Impacts on ecosystem services is in fact a sub-theme within the dimension of environmental costs. However as this topic was mentioned frequently by both local groups, they have been combined in their own thematic map. A first observation indicates that the Rangpo and the Rongli slopes mention different themes regarding the negative impacts of hydropower on their
ecosystem services. Rangpo communities view most of the impacts in terms of changes in groundwater spring services, whereas the Rongli group mostly expressed changes in the ecosystem services of the Rongli River. Both notice that the environment around these water sources is drying up and both groups face a decline in water supply for irrigation of fields and paddy.
