ALL EYES ARE ON THE SUPREME COURT:
The Fate of the West Seti Project
AB Thapa
It is a great consolation that in South Asian countries judiciary has started to play increasingly important role in protecting the interest of society, whereas the politicians prone to be easily influenced are not seldom seen to be compromising themselves. Thus, now all eyes are on our Supreme Court. All of us, who are familiar with the problems of our water resources in general and the West Seti in particular, are hoping that the Supreme Court will consider all facts before giving its ruling on West Seti project.
It is quite unfortunate that the Water Resources Ministry is run these days by those who are not adequately experienced in the field of water resources, particularly in handling mega projects. The following one case suffices to indicate it.
How Prime Minister’s Position Made a Mockery
Two prime-ministers, one of them the present Prime Minister of Nepal Mr. G. P. Koirala, had signed an agreement to conduct detailed feasibility study of the Kosi dam project which is expected to be one of the largest multipurpose water resources projects in the whole world. The project is considered indispensable to save the life and property of millions in Nepal, India and also Bangladesh. It is also proposed to provide as a component of this giant project a navigation canal linking Nepal with the Ganges waterway. Such canal will help to connect our country with the seaport. The project is expected to provide enormously large irrigation and power benefits also.
Unfortunately our Ministry of Water Resources does not seem to realize the extent of the damage to entire nation if the Kosi dam project is not handled with great care. At present one wing of the Ministry of Water Resources and Indian experts have started to conduct jointly the detailed study of the Kosi project. At this very time to the great horror of everybody another wing of the same Water Resources Ministry without the slightest hesitation is busy to devastate the proposed Kosi dam project. Just few months back it allowed a private developer to conduct detailed feasibility study to implement the Lower Arun Project. It is a perfectly known fact that the Kosi Dam Project and the Lower Arun Project are mutually exclusive.
All are hoping that the Supreme Court will recognize the fact that our country’s vital national interest should not be made a casualty of inexperience.
West Seti Project Will Uproot Thousands in Banke
The Laxmanpur barrage, few other barrages including the Girjapur barrage across the Karnali river, and the Saryu Canal are the direct extension of the West Seti High Dam Project proposed to be built in Nepal. The year-round operation of the Saryu Canal ( drawing regulated flow of the West Seti through the Girjapur barrage) earmarked to irrigate a vast area of agricultural lands of the north-east UP would be totally dependant on implementation of the West Seti. High Dam Project.
The Saryu Canal has been built too close to our country’s border with India. As a result, people of our Western Terai particularly those living in the Banke district have already started to suffer from submergence. Now, instead of reliving the suffering of the people of the Western Terai by holding dialogue with Indian Government at the highest level to make necessary modifications of the Saryu Canal to avert submergence of Nepalese territory, we are going to greatly worsen the plight of our people by supplying all year round the West Seti regulated flow into the Saryu Canal that would cause widespread submergence and uprooting of people in Banke district in far greater number.
The Supreme Court must ask the Water Resources Ministry to furnish proof that the West Seti dam related structures will not submerge Nepalese territory.
Downstream Benefit Sharing with India
Some times back important news have appeared in the news media that very much concern water resources of our country. It is reported ( INDIA TODAY dated January 20, 2003) that the Government of India has appointed in December,2002 a three-member task force headed by the former power minister Suresh Prabhu. The task force, which has to submit its report by June 2003, is expected to address the issue to obtain the consent of Nepal (also Bhutan and Bangladesh) perhaps through a revenue sharing pact to divert water of the major rivers for irrigation across the India. Needless to say that the storage dams proposed to be built in Nepal in future would have to play the decisive role for this type of grandiose project to succeed. Now India appears to be taking the initiative to find a way to share benefits accruable from the water delivered from Nepal for distribution across India. However, we have not done enough homework to resolve this issue .
The above reporting provides our country a good ground to take further initiative to start negotiation to develop a policy to give the regulated water supplied to India from the storage reservoirs proposed to be built in Nepal the same type of treatment as the United States is now giving to the regulated water of the Columbia river supplied by Canada. The Columbia river treaty has granted the Canada the right to recover 50% benefits accruing from the use of the Columbia river water in the United States virtually in perpetuity.
It would be the severest loss to the nation if the private developer is allowed to take up the implementation of the West Seti project ignoring the irrigation and other downstream benefits. The share of downstream net irrigation benefit accruable to Nepal could even exceed the net power benefit Nepal could hope to get. It has been explained about it in the WECS bulletin dated May, 1995 (Volume 6, Number 1&2).
Feasibility Studies
The West Seti high dam project is among the very few schemes in Nepal which have been extensively studied. It has two major components. They are the irrigation and power. A study at feasibility level on power was carried out by SOGREAH of France, whereas the Karnali Multipurpose Project study fully covers the irrigation component of this project. Feasibility level study of the Karnali Multipurpose Project had been done thrice in the past. One of the main objectives of the latest feasibility study was to involve India in the studies to determine the magnitude of the irrigation benefits accruable to that country from the regulated flow of the Karnali River and obviously it also denotes the regulated flow of the West Seti River which is a tributary of the Karnali River.
The West Seti High Dam Project
It has been proposed to build a 187 meters high dam across the West Seti river in the feasibility study carried out by the SOGREAH. The total storage capacity of the reservoir will be 1,600 million cubic meters. The power station will be underground type. The power station will produce 2202 GWh firm energy annually. The total annual energy production will be 2,402 GWh. After the regulation of the West Seti run-off the present dry season flow at the dam site of about 45 cubic meters per second will be increased to about 135 cubic meters per second. Thus the net augmentation of the dry season flow could be about 90 cubic meters per second which is about 40% dry season flow of the Karnali river.
Downstream Irrigation Benefit
There will be significantly large downstream irrigation benefit accruable to India after the completion of the West Seti Storage Dam Project. Such benefit has been quite thoroughly evaluated in the Karnali Multipurpose Project study. Agricultural production over a vast area adjoining the Karnali river in the Indian territory is at present greatly constrained by the scarcity of water needed for irrigation particularly in dry seasons. The regulated West Seti flow could be used for increasing the cropping intensities of the Sarda Sahayak irrigation system or the Saryu irrigation system already provided in the Utter Pradesh province of India. It is not necessary to build a new barrage for the diversion. The West Seti regulated flow could be diverted for irrigation from the existing Girjapur barrage into the Sarda Sahayak canal or the Saryu canal. Additional canal network also would not be needed for the delivery of water. The existing capacity of the canal system would be adequate.
According to the study carried out by the SOGREAH, if the year 2003 is taken as the reference year and the 1989 price level is adopted at a discount rate of 10%, the total discounted power benefit of the West Seti project would be 912 million US Dollars against a discounted cost of the project estimated at 456 million US Dollars. Thus the total net discounted power benefit of the project could be 456 million US Dollars. Based on the feasibility study of the Karnali High Dam project the total net discounted irrigation benefit of the West Seti project at 1989 price level for the reference year 2003 could be as high as 720 million US Dollars. It implies that the net irrigation benefit of the West Seti project could be much greater than the net power benefit. Now a very big question arises. Should we ignore the West Seti downstream benefit? Will we be morally correct to do so? Will it not be a treason apart from being in breach of our constitution? These are the legal questions that should be answered.
In Conclusion
A through study should be carried out based on confirmed data to determine exactly the impact of the Saryu canal on Nepalese territory. It would also be necessary to determine how far to the south the Saryu canal must be shifted once it is established that the proximity of the canal alignment to the border is the cause of the present flooding in Nepal.
Nepal should not commit a blunder by continuing to go ahead with the decision to implement the West Seti project before resolving the downstream benefit sharing and submergence problems.
