PM Oli stresses country should get water as per Mahakali Treaty

Kathmandu, February 26

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today stressed that Nepal should get the exact amount of water as per the commitment made in the Mahakali Treaty. He made this comment on the eve of a meeting of a high-level team of experts for the Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project (PMP).

The two-day meeting is scheduled to be held from Wednesday.

Oli directed authorities of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation to keep the country’s interest in priority during the high-level Pancheshwar meeting at a discussion programme organised by the Water and Energy Commission today.

As per the Mahakali Treaty, Nepal should get 250 cusecs of water per second, however India has not stuck to that commitment. PM Oli also directed concerned officials to raise this issue during the meeting.

Chiranjivi Chataut, joint secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation and also the additional chief executive officer of PDA, had earlier informed that the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (MoWRRDGR), India will hold a meeting in Kathmandu.

As per Chataut, meeting will finalise the detailed project report (DPR) of the multipurpose project and also hold discussions on downstream benefits and further geological investigations.

“This will be the third ‘team of experts’ meeting related to DPR and I hope this meeting will pave a way for project implementation.”

On April 27 last year, the secretary-level meeting between Nepal and India had extended the deadline to prepare the DPR of the Pancheshwar Project to December, but neither has the DPR been finalised nor was a meeting held.

The Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project was conceived under the Mahakali Treaty between Nepal and India in 1996. Apart from generating electricity, the project will provide irrigation facility to 0.13 million hectares of land in Nepal and 0.24 million hectares of land in India in addition to other incidental benefits.