Media, Misinformed Public And Water Resources

By DR. AB THAPA

Policy makers, planners and media of our country are in need to have a better understanding of the problems related to our water resources development. There are endless possibilities to use our vast water resources to achieve great successes in all round development of our country. However, we must be able to evaluate well enough the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats that underlie the development of our water resources if we are to succeed in exploiting them to the benefit of our people.

Unfortunately, at present there is a great deal of confusion about what the approach should be in taking the decisions to select any of our water resources projects for implementation. We have almost completely failed to take into consideration the techno-economic aspects of water resources development. It need not be explained that the techno-economic matters are the most important consideration in taking the decision to implement any of the major water resources projects.

It should be noted that the radio and TV journalists, like Mr. I. Lohani, K. Pokhrel and few others, are doing their best to generate public awareness of the issues related to our water resources development. Media can certainly play a very big positive role in helping to guide the policy makers and planners to take right decisions by pointing out their mistakes. However, we should not forget the fact that the role of the media can be equally harmful if it drowns out the voices of those expressing their discontent over wrong decisions.

Nowadays people are too accustomed to take anything the media says at face value. People seldom care to listen to what an individual says specially on serious matters. But it was not the case in early years. There used to be a swift public reaction even when a single individual ventured to raise important issues. The Kulekhani dam safety problem can be regarded as a typical example.

Kulekhani Dam Safety

In 1970s the construction of the Kulekhani High Dam Project was about to begin. I had horrible suspicion that the geology of the Kulekhani dam site area could be problematic. I published an article about that in the newspaper “ The Rising Nepal”. Some other local and foreign newspapers also carried partially the content of my article shortly thereafter. The media was very quick to cover the news about the Kulekhani dam. That news was very seriously taken up by the World Bank and the government. It is said that extra concrete grouting works and other measures were taken up to protect the river bed and the terraces just adjacent to the dam to ensure safety. Despite such limited measures, few years after the completion of the Kulekhani dam the news came out all of a sudden that very wide cracks have already developed over an wide area adjacent to the intake structures on the right bank. It appeared that the Kulekhani dam was on the verge of collapse.

The misgivings I had about the poor geological conditions turned into the most grave reality. Dr. John Cooper and Mr. Deepak Gyawali from WECS had visited the Kulekhani dam site to spend the weekend. They were shocked to find that the Kulekhani dam was at the risk of being washed away. We got full reporting from them It was feared that at any time in near future a very big portion of the right bank terrace along with the intake structure could slide and plunge into the reservoir setting in motion a huge big mass of the reservoir water to overtop the dam. In a similar type of Vajont dam incident in Italy, the loss of life was significant even though the dam was left standing after the overtopping because it was a concrete dam. However, the whole project was rendered useless after that incident. In case of the Kulekhani dam made of earthen core the whole dam body would have been completely washed away after the overtopping.

Leading experts from the USA, Australia and Japan were called in for consultation shortly thereafter. On their recommendations works such as the clearing of large volume of weathered materials, anchor bolting of huge masses of rocks to prevent sliding into the reservoir, provision of underground drainage system were carried out. Nepal was guided all along by the advice of the donor agency. Their timely assistance helped to preclude the possibility of Nepal being hit by a big disaster.

Diversion Away From Critical Problems

It has to be stated regretfully that nowadays our media are often not seen to be truly concerned to address even the most serious water resources related problems. They don’t care to report to caution the public even when the decision makers proceed to strike a deal to part with the enormous downstream benefits to accrue to our country from the mammoth Karnali High Dam Project.

The huge hydropower potential of the most attractive 4100 MW Upper Karnali Project is going to be completely lost. This project would be replaced by a small 300 MW project against the clear-cut recommendation of the feasibility study report prepared with the assistance of the World Bank. The media in any other country would have vigorously reacted by raising alarm in the strongest possible terms against such decision detrimental to vital national interest. But our media are not yet seen to be bothered.

At present we are allowing a private developer to build the West Seti High Dam Project. A new type of dam is proposed The dam design is based on technology not yet fully tested for very high dams. We are turning a blind eye to downstream benefits thus our country would be deprived of our right to get a fair share of the benefits to accrue to India from the use of the regulated flow of the West Seti . Laxmanpur barrage, Saryu canal and many other structures built near the Indo-Nepal border are the extension of the West Seti Project.

How Strange!

It is quite clear that the completion of the construction of the West Seti project is sure to be accompanied with widespread submersion of the Western Terai . Unfortunately our media are now too busy in holding interviews and debates on India ’s river linking project though it primarily concerns the downstream riparian countries. Moreover, the river linking project has not yet been even properly conceptualized. In this way our media on one hand are drumming up support for the campaign against the river linking project and on the other hand they have remained strangely silent on West Seti High Dam issue. It is an irony that this type of attitude of our media that tries to keep in dark the public about the negative impact of the West Seti project by diverting the attention away from that project is indeed helping the cause of India’s river linking plan.

Nepal Drowning Its Own Citizens

It might appear utterly unbelievable that Nepal is going to drown a very large number of our own citizens living in the Western Terai . Unfortunately it is a bitter reality. The 230 km long Saryu Canal taking off from the Girjapur Barrage already built in India across the Karnali River is the extension of the West Seti Storage Dam Project. At present we are about to take the final decision to grant permission to a private developer to build the West Seti Storage Dam Project to generate electricity completely disregarding the fact that the regulated flow of the West Seti River would play havoc in the Western Terai to the east of the Karnali River. The middle and lower reaches of the Saryu Canal run very close to our border. Extremely objectionable type of river crossing structures have recently been built completing ignoring the fact that they would result in widespread perpetual submergence affecting a vast area of Nepal’s Western Terai. Already serious flooding problems have been experienced even though those structures are not yet in operation. The flooding situation would be extremely grave once those structures would be in use after the Saryu Canal, that draws regulated flow of the West Seti, starts to operate.

The submersion of lands in southern Terai of the western Nepal resulting from the structures built in India has emerged as a problem of immense concern for the safety of our people. Four districts of the Western Terai are going to be seriously affected. Few years ago the flooding was limited to Banke district along the banks of the West Rapti river. Subsequently it extended further east to Kapilabastu and Rupandehi districts.

How the Submersion is Caused

The total length of the Saryu canal running almost parallel to Indo-Nepal border is about 230 km. In the original design the barrage across the Saryu River was at a location about 328 meters to the south of the railway bridge at Nanpara. Later, the design was modified and the location of the barrage was shifted 10 km to the north from the original site. The longitudinal gradient of the Saryu Canal has been reduced to a minimum. It is only one meter on a stretch of 9 km. The adoption of such extremely mild slope permitted the alignment of the canal to be pushed as far as possible to the north very close to Indo-Nepal border specially in its middle and lower reaches.

Normally underground siphons are provided to deliver canal water across a river. The river flow would not be obstructed if such siphons are built. A much higher average slope of the canal is required for the operation of this type of cross drainage structure, which has to operate under pressurized condition. A free flow hydraulic regime needs to be maintained at the river crossing if the average gradient of the canal is to be drastically reduced. For reducing the average slope of the Saryu Canal an altogether a different type of structures has been devised, which at first glance drives anybody crazy. Barrages have already been built across the rivers to elevate the river water to such a level that would allow free passage of canal water across the river into the canal taking off from the other side of the river The contentious Laxmanpur Barrage is one of such structures devised to deliver the West Seti water drawn from the Girjapur Barrage across the West Rapti River.. It need not be mentioned that the Girjapur Barrage would help in future to draw the regulated Karnali River water also into the Saryu Canal to extend the coverage of lands under year round irrigation.

It would be necessary to maintain all the time pond water upstream of the barrages above certain fixed level to keep the Saryu Canal running at desired capacity. Thus the pond would always be full, with the result that a sizeable area of lands in Nepalese territory would remain perpetually submerged. When the river is in flood, the water would be spreading out onto the lands that were never before regarded prone to flooding.

The Saryu Canal is expected to cross innumerable small rivers and drains on its way. Embankments and dikes are needed to train these drains and small rivers for the protection of the Saryu Canal. These river training structures would also result in flooding inside Nepal where the canal route is close to the border.

In Conclusion

It is hoped that our media would not fail in future to bring impartially to public notice those wrong decisions that are detrimental to the development of our water resources in the interest of Nepalese people.

(Dr. Thapa writes on water resources)