MAHENDRANAGAR, MARCH 28

In every election, whether local or parliamentary, the issue of bringing irrigation water from the Mahakali River to Dodhara Chandani Municipality becomes top priority of political parties and their candidates.

But this issue, the major agenda of parties during the election campaign, is relegated to the back-burner once the election is over.

As per the Mahakali Treaty signed between Nepal and India, Chandani Dodhara Municipality should have got the irrigation water by now. But this has not happened even 15 years after the treaty was inked.

The Mahakali River flows from the north of this municipality to the southern border with India. However, the farmers have had to rely on rain or the ground water for irrigation for decades. The municipality has 3,600 hectares of arable land.

The Nepal-India Integrated Mahakali Treaty mentions that India will construct around 1,200 metres long main irrigation canal and associated structures up to the Nepal border from the Sharada canal near the Banbasa Bridge over the Mahakali river.

But neither has India constructed this canal nor has Nepal initiated the construction of the irrigation canal in Dodhara Chandani.

In the latest development, the locals registered their protest to a team of Mahakali Irrigation Project Third Phas,e which was on site to survey as part of preparation of the DPR for the project.

The municipality's Chief Administrative Officer Ganesh Datta Mishra said although people protested at some places due to their ignorance about the irrigation canal, the municipality had written to every ward to facilitate the survey team in its work.

However, he expressed ignorance about how much work the team carried out. The municipality has said that the local, provincial and the federal governments have provided funds for installing deep tube wells in the municipality for irrigation.

Still, the farmers here are facing problems such as shortage of electricity for operating the motors for drawing water from the tube wells.

Senior divisional engineer Shambhu Pandit, information officer for the Mahakali irrigation project III phase, said that a 15-kilometre canal at Dodhara Chandani would be constructed.

'For the project, a survey along 1,500 metres area along the Indian border has been carried out. Survey of the remaining areas has been obstructed by the locals. There is a plan to develop the seven-kilometre Maleriya channel as a canal,' he said.

As per the treaty, India has to construct 1,200 metres canal on the Nepal side. But it has shown reluctance in this regard.

Pressure will be created on the Indian side to construct the 1,200 metres canal on the Nepali side once Nepal builds a 1,500 metres canal, he said.

The issue took a back seat on the ground that Dodhara Chandani would get the water only after the Pancheshwor project was completed, said Dodhara Chandani Mayor Bir Bahadur Sunar.

'Now, the process of constructing the project has gained pace. So it should not be delayed under any pretext.'

A version of this article appears in the print on March 29, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.