Hydropower Development

PRIME Minister Girija Prasad Koirala inaugurated the Modikhola Hydro-Electricity Project, which has added 14-megawatt electricity to the central grid of Nepal Electricity Authority. With the generation of electricity from Modikhola project, Nepal’s total electricity generation has now reached 369 megawatt. Nature has gifted Nepal with several natural resources. Of them, the most importance and abundant is the water resource, which has the potentials of generating more than 83,000 megawatt of electricity. However, Nepal has not been able to fully harness its water resource for the development of the country. The development of the nation lies on the extent of the use and utilisation of our water resources. It is essential for Nepal to harness water resource at the optimum level for the economic and social development of the country. Prime Minister Koirala, has also clearly indicated the priority of the government for the development of water resource for overall progress of the nation. As said by Premier Koirala, Nepal needs to adopt three—pronged strategy for the development of water resources in Nepal. Nepal has the potentials of all three types of hydropower projects—small, medium and large. Priority needs to be given to small projects for the electrification of nation and medium projects for the industrial use and the large projects for exporting electricity.

Despite having such a large potentials of generating electricity, less than 15 per cent people alone have access to electricity. As a result, a large sum of money is spent annually to import the fossil fuel to meet the people’s energy demands. In addition, there is a big pressure on forest resources of the country for energy, which has resulted in some environmental problems. Hydropower is pollution free and environmental friendly. If hydro energy was generated sufficiently, Nepal can save a huge amount of money from being flown out of the country for the import of POL products and help protect environment as well. Besides, Nepal can benefit a lot from exporting electricity to other countries, as our neighbouring countries desperately need power. Nepal needs to grab the opportunity and adopt appropriate strategy to generate hydropower, on which Nepal’s longterm development strategy lies. With the limited resources, the government alone cannot invest in the hydropower plants, which requires a huge amount, and it has asked private sector and foreign investors to invest in Nepal’s hydropower area. Some national as well as international private companies have shown interest and some have already invested in Nepal’s hydropower sector. This speaks of the fact that hydropower is a lucrative sector for investors in Nepal. The country, thus, needs to utilise this opportunity and create more conducive atmosphere for the development of hydropower in the country.

Successful Drive

THE drive against the scourge of polio has been quite successful in the context of Nepal. The regular immunisation campaigns at the national level have been quite commendable. The national immnisation campaign has been initiated in Nepal since 1995 at the call of the World Health Organisation. This year’s drive has been observed with the active role of the Rotary International in conjuction of the WHO, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of the US and UNICEF. Last year 3,850,000 children below the age of five were administered polio drops. Since the campaign was initiated only a few cases have been reported. This is the reason this year too National Polio Immunisation Day was observed on Saturday.

As per reports about 80 per cent of the children below the age of five were administered polio drops in the first phase. The total number of children offered immunisation reached about four million. This is quite an encouraging sign of the awareness that has been generated among the parents. Not only in the urban centre, people were enthusiastic in the rural areas. With the mobilisation of 100,000 volunteers and 23,000 immunisation centres the first phase of the national immunisation campaign was a success. Polio had been a health problem in the past affecting many a children but since the anti-polio drive was initiated, polio has almost been wiped out. This is a success story as far as protecting the health of our children is concerned.

Nepal as such has many challenges on the health front. Checking one disease alone must not make us complacent. There is a need to tackle other health hazards on a war footing. For example, tuberculosis, water borne diseases and others must also receive adequate attention. As the spread of diseases is complicated by poverty, illiteracy and the lack of awareness among the people, special programmes have to be formulated to protect the health of not only the children but adults as well. In this context, it may be relevant to remember that the child mortality rate is still high and the number of dying due to pregnancy related complications has only come down slightly. In the 21st century, an all-out campaign must be carried out against all forms of disease with special focus on HIV/AIDS. Though there are encouraging signs, the efforts have not been enough. The priority and commitment are there but the need is specially to mobilise resources and skilled medical personnel.