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| Kathmandu, Sunday January 12, 2003 Paush 28, 2059. |
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UNDP-led policy to strengthen
rural energy framework soon
By Damaru Lal Bhandari
KATHMANDU, Jan 11:The United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) is working on a suitable policy the government should adopt to indirectly
strengthen rural energy development programmes. Rural Energy Development Programme (REDP)
of the UN agency is on the new policy since December.
This follows an agreement between National
Planning Commission (NPC) and UNDP, signed in December. The draft policy framework will be
ready by December 2003.
"The step was taken in the wake of the
anomalies dogging the rural energy development," said Kiran Man Singh of REDP. He
also enumerated a number of hurdles faced by the government and the need to have a
clear-cut policy on micro and bigger power projects.
He also said that the current policy governing
micro-hydro and bigger power projects has tended to work to cross-purposes, owing to the
World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) policies on electrification.
There are allegations that the need for a new
policy on rural energy arose largely because there isn’t much co-ordination between
the government, the donor agencies like WB and ADB and UNDP-run energy development
schemes.
"The thrust of the new policy will be on
power generation and introduction of income generation schemes. This is not the case with
the current policy, which merely lays stress on giving permission to as many power plants
as possible, with income generation schemes not referred to at all," said Singh,
dwelling at length on the need to back up income generation schemes with power generation
permits.
Meanwhile, formulating and implementing a
suitable policy governing rural energy generation is expected to facilitate unhindered
growth in the number of micro-hydro projects facilitated by REDP.
Efforts are also on to convince Nepal
Electricity Authority (NEA) to buy power from micro-hydro projects, once NEA moves into
inaccessible parts of the country where micro-hydro power stations are currently being
built and run.
"Although NEA is reluctant to do so,
chances are they may buy it since the denial would mean decimation of micro-hydro
stations, once the NEA moves into additional places," Singh said.
The number of micro-hydro power stations
currently stands at 94, with collective power generation put at 1304 KW. They are spread
over 15 districts and are known for fuelling the local economy as never before, with over
100 thousand people. This has encouraged micro-enterprises which would not have been
possible in the absence of electrification.
This is being hailed as an achievement since
only six per cent of the rural population have access to electricity through the national
grid.
"In fact, micro-hydro power generation is
only one component out of four. Others include bio-gas generation, solar home schemes and
improved stoves to meet the local need for fuel," said Tek Bahadur Gurung, who is
associated with Environment and Energy Unit (EEU) of the UNDP.
He also said that the UN agency was soon
contemplating to extend the rural energy development programme into 10 additional
districts of the country, which are not expected to have access to electricity, at least
until the next five years.
Even as the REDP facilitated the efforts of the
local people to build a lot of micro-hydro projects since 1996, it has also facilitated in
the construction of over 600 kms of trail, over 2,562 bio-gas plants with toilets and over
6,507 improved cooking stoves. Add to it are 2,706 community forest and user groups with
membership running into 54 thousand.
However, the most notable aspect of the
electrification through micro-hydro projects is that people have grouped, under
co-operatives in some cases, and are known to mobilise nearly Rs 18.7 million as weekly
savings, which is being further handed to borrowers to run micro-enterprises. Total
investment adds up to Rs 35 million. "This is fuelling the local economy as never
before," Gurung said, adding "hence these further efforts at promoting
micro-hydro and related activities to additional districts, even as policy is further fine
tuned."
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