Mahendra B Gurung

Nepal has brought forward a score of policies, plans, strategies and action plans for development of water resources for the benefit of the people. The Water Resources Strategy prepared in 2002 lays out the plan of developing 2,230 MW of hydro-power including 400 MW of export by the year 2012. By then, electricity service will reach 38 per cent of all households. In irrigation sector, 80 per cent of all irrigable land will be under irrigation out of which two-thirds will be provided with year-round irrigation. The current Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007) envisages orienting the water sector development towards poverty alleviation. Projects for a total of 842MW including 70MW for export will be developed. Middle Marsyangdi (70MW) and other medium scale hydroelectric projects have been designed and implemented to expand electricity to additional 10 per cent of the population.

In irrigation sector an additional 1,77,600 ha of irrigable land will be brought under irrigation and 64,000 ha of farmers’ managed irrigation systems will be strengthened and expanded. Special thrust has been given to providing year-round irrigation and for sustainability of the operation and maintena-nce of completed irrigation systems. While new frontiers have been explored through sectoral approach in surface and tube well irrigation systems, attention has been given to ensure that the implementation follows the demand driven criteria and participatory approach. Recently, a workshop was organised in which all the sectoral agencies related to water resource ministry sat together, shared their problems and came up with their resolve for the next fiscal year (2062/063). The total budget for next fiscal year will have some constraints. This will be partly due to the fact that the nation’s top agenda at present is the establishment of peace in the country, which will obviously require additional resources. The other reason is that some of the friendly countries have chosen to suspend aid.

To mention some of the recommendations, the workshop reached a general understanding that some water resource projects, may be one each in electricity and irrigation sectors, be undertaken as a project of national resolve. Examples in the past are Bagmati and Babai in irrigation and Chilime in electricity sector. This will help us to break open the shackles of pressure chain from the donors and help us establish ownership over our natural resources.

Other important areas of recommendations were to render priorities based on whether those projects could be completed within one year or within the Tenth Plan, how long they will take to give returns and whether they are based on people’s participation, etc. Furthermore, the relevant guidelines of the Government’s 21-point Programme have been seriously taken up to develop irrigation/electricity in short-, medium- and long-term strategy, not forgetting, at the same time, that poverty alleviation is the goal of the Tenth Plan and the goals of the Water Resource Strategy. The success definitely depends on how effectively the programmes will be implemented. The agencies concerned will need to assess the results in terms of service delivery, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of their implementation, quantitatively and qualitatively.