| by Daud Saba On January 5th, 1998, The CentGas Consortium formed to extend a 1271 km pipeline from the Dawlatabad gasfields of Turkmenistan to Pakistan, through Afghanistan. No doubt, economically this project will bring some benefits to the people of Afghanistan. But the establishment of such a gigantic project in Afghanistan will have huge environmental consequences that should be addressed before the implication of the proposed project. The people of Afghanistan paid a big price to the environmental and social impacts of the Red Army's pipelines during 80's. Yet, after many years, the damages, caused by this pipeline on agricultural lands, water system and other life sustaining elements of the environment, are not recovered. The black scars of oil spills, fires and fighting scenes are still visible on the landscape of Afghanistan. However, from the viewpoint of volume and socio-political situation, the above pipeline could not be compared to the CentGas commercial pipeline project. Eventually, the later project could have more serious impacts on the environment. International norm in conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study, prior to the construction of such projects, is emphasised. Three stages of the project implication, viz.; the construction period, the exploitation period and the abandonment stage were discussed. It is argued that due to the short period of the construction activities, this stage will not have serious environmental consequences to be worried about. The major environmental and social impacts of this project could arise during the exploitation and abandonment stages. It is speculated that the following environmental factors would be greatly affected by the extension of this pipeline in the territory of Afghanistan: the population and habitat expansion, the volume of the social services in the region, the productivity of farmlands, pastures and other agricultural activities in the surrounding areas of the pipeline route, soil and vegetation covers, conservation of water resources and wildlife conservation. Many other social and environmental concerns related to these factors are discussed. Previous experiences of Afghanistan in such multi-dimensional projects are shortly reviewed. It is argued that if all environmental issues concerning the implication of this project are not addressed in time, they will have great consequences to the future of Afghanistan's people and the project as well. Negligence of these issues in the agreements or contracts could be considered as clear indication of taking the right of the people of Afghanistan, who are not able to express themselves at this time. It is proposed that an EIA report should be prepared before any contract is signed. The ignorance of this norm by all enveloped parties to date, is crited. It is voiced that any contract, clearly not addressing the environmental consequences of this project and the responsible parties, would be of no validity, nationally and internationally, and could be declared nil by legal establishments in the future. |