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Kathmandu,Tuesday May 16, 2000 Jestha 03, 2057.
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Tap hydropower potential
For years, energy experts, development planners and
even politicians in Nepal (and its neighbouring countries) shared a vision that Nepal
would generate a plenty of electricity using its hydro resources and then sell it to
energy hungry neighbouring countries. Yet the present status of the country presents a
dismal picture. Not only that Nepal’s installed capacity (at 275 MW now) is far too
low, amounting a mere 0.3 percent of the total estimated potential) but lately Nepal has
become a net importer of power from India. One may count several reasons for such a
failure of harnessing hydropower in Nepal. Hydropower projects have always been
politically sensitive and risky and hence make it difficult to reach a required consensus.
Another reason, more important one, is that the price of electricity from hydropower of
Nepal is actually not cheaper than that from coal based plants of India. Obviously, till
now a very few projects have been agreed upon for development between India and Nepal.
Will the situation ever change?
It will. With the threat of global warming becoming
real, a new possibility has now emerged, which may make Nepal’s hydropower more
attractive. There is strong possibility that energy sources, such as hydropower, which
emit low greenhouse gas (GHG), will attract attentions from now on, as GHG friendly energy
resource. On the other hand, India and China’s potential to release a large amount of
GHGs (they burn coal a lot!) in future is disturbing the international community. Here,
Nepal’s hydropower may enter and provide relief to all by mitigating these
countries’ GHG emissions. Moreover, recent years have seen a series of evolution in
innovative mechanisms, through the climate change conventions (more recently, for example,
the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Kyoto), which are designed to combat the climate
change challenges. Such international mechanisms will facilitate a process of using
Nepal’s hydropower to mitigate India and China’s GHG emissions.
Hence, the hope is emerging now, that a favourable
change will come in the prospect of hydropower of Nepal, more likely, as an option for
mitigating India’s GHG emissions. Hydro-policy in Nepal shall better consider how
these changing situations can be utilized in favour of Nepal. Also, better start marketing
to the international community that how it can help fighting the global warming.
Sameer Shrestha
Bangkok |
