* Admissibility date reflects the date the case was officially registered. All other dates pertain to the date in which a stage was completed.
Case Description
Complaint
On 3 June 2021, the EIB-CM received a complaint from a group of Dalit households claiming to be affected by the EIB-funded Nepal Tanahu Hydropower Project. On 22 August 2021, additional Dalit households requested to join the complaint presented to the EIB-CM. The main allegations of the complainants are:
1) Lack of adequate information sharing, meaningful consultation, and participation;
2) Lack of compensation;
3) Inadequate grievance redress mechanism;
4) Lack of proper consideration of the Dalits’ vulnerability.
The complaint was also sent to the Office of the Special Project Facilitator (OSPF) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
EIB-CM Action
On 16 June 2021, the EIB-CM acknowledged receipt and confirmed the admissibility of the complaint. The EIB-CM identified significant overlaps with case SG/E/2021/11 and decided to carry out a joint initial assessment for both cases, which is reflected in the Initial Assessment and subsequent reports. On 13 December 2021, the EIB-CM finalized the Initial Assessment Report and in May 2022 an addendum to the Initial Assessment Report. The EIB-CM proposed a dispute resolution process for some aspects of the complaint to which the parties agreed. The EIB-CM delineated the scope of the dispute resolution process to cover the allegation concerning the lack of compensation for non-titled and community land users in the reservoir area of the future hydropower scheme.
The remaining allegations were envisaged to be addressed by a list of agreed actions, by additional assessments and surveys planned for the project’s buffer zone area (that was still in the process of being defined at the time of the abovementioned Addendum) and by a cultural impact study (all of which to be carried out by the promoter).
The work carried out by the Complaints Mechanism up to 27 May 2024 consisted of in person meetings and virtual consultations with the complainants, their advisors, the promoter, external stakeholders and the ADB’s and EIB’s project teams. The Complaints Mechanism carried out seven missions and two joint dispute resolution meetings with the complainants and the promoter.
End of dispute resolution process
The dispute resolution process did not lead to an agreement between the complainants and the promoter on how to address the lack of compensation for non-titled and community land users. In August 2024, the EIB-CM issued a Dispute Resolution report, closing the dispute resolution process and recommended proceeding with a compliance review.
The EIB-CM will report on the implementation of the actions addressing the allegations not covered by the dispute resolution process in the conclusions report of the compliance review.