FORUM (Spotlight Weekly)

NEPAL'S WATER RESOURCES STRATEGY FORMULATION

Paving The Way While Driving The Car

By Dr. Upendra Gautam

Preparation of a national water resources strategy for Nepal is at the final stage. According to Purna Bhadra Adiga, executive director and convener of this exercise at the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS), Ministry of Water Resources, the synthesized draft of the strategy will be duly deliberated upon at a national workshop.

His Majesty's Government started the first phase of the national water resources strategy formulation in 1995. In this phase, issues and problems in the water sector were reviewed and identified. This phase was completed in 1996. After a gap of two years, the second (current) phase of strategy formulation got initiated in January 1999. WECS contracted a team of national consultants who were organized into a Water Resources Strategy Formulation (WRSF) Consortium to undertake the comprehensive strategy formulation exercise. The two-year contract was made under a competitive services procurement arrangement that was agreed between HMG and the World Bank.

The main objective of the WRSF exercise was "to help efficient and judicious harnessing of water resources for accelerating the economy to a high growth path on a sustainable basis." WRSF Consortium recommended a "strategic policy framework" constituting seven major policy-components to realize the objective of the WRSF exercise. These components were specified as: i) development and management of water resources should be on a holistic and integrated basis; ii) development of water resources should be on a sustainable basis; iii) delivery of water services should be efficient and affordable; iv) economic efficiency and social equity should be considered in water pricing and cost recovery; v) participation and consultation should be institutionalized in water-related decision making process; vi) sharing of water resources should be based on clear and unambiguous legislation on water right on domestic front and on international rules and conventions in the case of international rivers; and vii) institutional framework should be well in place for clear demarcation of policy, operation and regulation functions, restructuring of relevant entities on river basin basis and strengthening of central planning organization.

In the opinion of Dr. Badri Prasad Shrestha, team leader of the WRSF Consortium, "the country's water resources strategy has to be guided by a comprehensive national perspective and it should be able to resolve the problem of poverty." Indeed, in the context of poverty and vulnerability of a majority segment of the population, the social well-being should be the primary goal of Nepal's water resources development and management strategy. Poor, women, and potential project-affected persons should constitute as the primary target social group that needs to be mainstreamed with water resources development and management if social well-being and equity in resources distribution is to be achieved.

After several rounds of ups and downs, breaking and joining of hearts, prejudice and patience, tears and cheers, which are natural and well anticipated in this sort of complex but pioneering national exercise, WRSF Consortium completed its contractual task in December, 2000. It submitted the final report on water resources strategy along with 15 annexes. The fifteen annexes pertain to national water resources policy framework, macro-economic framework, water pricing and cost recovery, river basin planning framework, hydrology, geo-seismology, water resources database, environment, social concerns, legal aspect and international cooperation, institutional framework and mechanism, water supply and sanitation, hydropower and power market, irrigation and river transportation.

The most observable constraint during the whole exercise was the personalized or factional position that the actors stuck to while participating in the administrative and/or WRSF consultative meetings. Such tendency was more pronounced in Kathmandu meetings than at the regional meetings that were held in Chitwan, Pokhara, Nepalgunj and Biratnagar. Participants in the regional meetings were more open and understanding, more consensus and result-oriented. This clearly underlined the need for an enlightened national leadership in the water sector, which derives sustenance from diverse stakes and potential of its own people and is able to take risk for the comprehensive, equitable and industrial utilization of water resources. The challenging situation, in which both the concerned officials and consultants worked in Kathmandu, therefore, can be characterized as "paving the way while driving the car."

WECS, which is supposed to be responsible for the national water resources strategy review and development on a continual basis, has since been working on the WRSF Consortium report. It has prepared a draft document. This document is stated to be "a synthesis of people's aspirations and down-to-earth realities and attempts to show a road ahead leading to water-induced prosperity, not a mirage."

The document presents the strategy in a logical frame inter-linking the goal, purpose, outputs, and major activities with one another in the time slice of 5, 15 and 25 years. WECS intends to present this synthesis document in a national workshop after duly completing internal peer review and preparatory works. The national workshop will be organized sooner than later, says Ram Nath Kayastha, project manager, WRSF Study Project. Presumably, the workshop will lead the WRSF process to the ultimate consensus, which has become the most essential hallmark of a successful polity in many societies.

Once a national water resources strategy is in place and effectively operational, it is hoped for that the country will be able to take initiatives and make responses on an appropriately institutionalized basis and both the authority and accountability of the leadership is in force and regularly implemented.

A retired Associate Professor at Tribhuvan University and Foreign Affairs Editor of the vernacular Nepal Post, Dr. Gautam is associated with Consolidated Management Services (CMS) Nepal, which was a leading member of WRSF Consortium.