National 2 (Spotlight Weekly)

Concern Over Controversy

India agrees to work with Nepal to find out a permanent solution to water inundation in the border areas

By A CORRESSPONDENT

Whenever there forms clouds at the Bay of Bengal, it causes torrential rainfall in Nepalese hills triggering the discharging of huge volume of water to the same end. The overflow of water in mighty snow fed rivers as well as small streams create havoc in the southern plains including in India.

For centuries these rivers have followed their natural course. But following the human intervention (construction of dams, dykes and so on), the problem of water inundation worsened. With the growing population and deforestation in the hills, Nepalese and Indian citizens living along the border areas continue to face threats flood. Constructed to protect its citizens from floods, the embankments created along Nepal-India border have become irritants in the relations between the two countries.

Surely, the people in India have to face flood during the monsoon season. But when India constructs embankment to protect its citizens, the citizens of Nepal on the other side of the border land in trouble.

"India is ready to cooperate with Nepal in not only setting up an efficient flood forecasting and early warning system but also in carrying out joint surveys, studies and construction of structures needed to ameliorate a problem, which affects both countries. It is only through such cooperation carried out through agreed mechanisms that we can deal with this shared problem successfully and for mutual benefit," stated a press release from the Indian embassy last week.

Although water inundation remains a major problem between the two countries, it used to be just an issue during the formal meetings between the officials of two countries at the onset of monsoon. With the visit of Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal recently and his remarks over the water inundation, Indian officials seem to realize the magnitude of the problem in damaging people to people relations.

ìIndia has advocated regular meetings of these bilateral bodies as also frequent interaction between contact officers designated by both governments so that all issues relating to inundation and flooding are addressed in a timely fashion. In cases of difference of opinion, we have expressed our readiness for joint site visits and technical discussions, as is the case with the Mahalisagar embankment," said Indian Embassy's press release.

Although there are a number of places where Nepalese are facing inundation problems, Laxmanpur in Banke, Khurdalotan in Rupandehi and Mahalisagar in Kapilvastu have been creating problems in the bilateral relations of late."This is very positive that India has responded, but the question remains: how will they translate it," said a senior official at the Ministry of Water Resources.

Indian side, too, has its own complain."There are also instances of serious inundation affecting life and property on the Indian side as a result of actions on the Nepali side. These problems can only tackled effectively through cooperation between, and coordinated action by, concerned authorities in India and Nepal and this has been the consistent approach of the Government of India," said a press release.

Nepalese officials claim that Indian side ignored the issues and they have hardly made any sincere efforts to solve the problems. But Indian authorities deny it."India and Nepal have in place a Standing Committee on Inundation Problems (SCIP), a Sub-Committee on Embankment Construction and a Committee on Flood Forecasting, to enable close cooperation on matters relating to floods and inundation issues. Whenever required, higher-level consideration of such issues has been agreed upon, such as the High Level Technical Committee on Inundation Problems in Banke (Nepal)/Sravasti (India) and Rupandehi (Nepal)/Sidharthnagar (India)," said the press release.

India has also claimed that it has worked closely with Nepal in tackling several inundation issues. Recently, the construction of an embankment along the Lal Bakiya River in Rautahat district of Nepal was completed with an Indian grant assistance of NRs 40 million. Agreement has also been reached on the construction of an embankment along the Bagmati River, in both Rautahat and Sarlahi districts, at a cost of NRs 210 million to be borne by the Indian side. Work on this project is likely to commence after the monsoons. Flood protection measures in Nepal along the Rapti, Kamala and Khando rivers are currently under discussion.

With the resurgence of Maoist problem, the process of deforestation increased as many community forestry programs have already been abandoned threatening severe floods in coming years. The statement of the Indian government, which will help to sort out one of the irritant factors in India-Nepal relations, indicated that there is a realization to take certain efforts to prevent the problems in the future. But the question remains: how long will it take?