Opinion (Spotlight Weekly)

Nepal And India's Rivers Linking Plan

By AB Thapa

It has been very recently reported in our newspapers that Bangladesh has lodged a protest against the proposed India’s Rivers Link Plan. In Nepal also, some of our local NGOs are holding meetings to discuss the rivers linking problems. It indeed is a great consolation that our NGOs are also taking interest in our country’s water resources related problems Just few years back only very few had to incur the wrath of many of our politicians and some decision makers when they spoke against the plan to hand over the Karnali (Chisapani) Project to ENRON without settling the downstream benefit matters. Unfortunately even now there is hardly any concern for the plight of many of our own fellow countrymen living in Banke, Kapilbastu and Rupendehi districts who are made to suffer from the inundation resulting from the Saryu canal and the barrages ( at Laxmanpur and other places) built in India which are virtually the extension of the West Seti High Dam Project going to be built deep inside Nepal The flooding problem is already serious despite the fact that the Saryu canal is only partially constructed. The irony is that it is not India that is pushing hard to implement the West Seti Dam project. Our own country is doing its level best to implement at the earliest the West Seti Project that would result in submersion of vast area of lands in our Western Terai near the border with India. This issue was raised in the media several times. Decision makers and various non-government agencies, however, preferred to turn deaf ears to such concerns

West Seti Dam and Terai Floodings

The Girjapur barrage across the Karnali river is located 1.2 km downstream of the confluence of the channel Girwa and Kauriala and 8.8 km downstream of Katarnia Ghat railway station of North Eastern Railway in India. The site of the barrage is about 16 km from the Nepal border along the River Kaurila.

There are two irrigation canals taking off from the Girjapur barrage . On the left is the Saryu canal running to the east beyond the Banganga river and on the right is the Link Canal connected with the Sarda Sahayak canal planned to irrigate about 2 million ha of lands. At present only the right bank canal is operational because the dry season flow of the Karnali river is quite insufficient for both the canals and there are technical difficulties to utilize the monsoon flow of this river. The year round operation of the Saryu canal depends entirely on availability of the regulated flow from the proposed storage reservoirs in Nepal. The construction of the Saryu canal, that started a long time ago, is still continuing at a snail's pace perhaps due to uncertainty about the date when the West Seti project would be ready for operation. Nevertheless, it appears that the Saryu canal could be made operational at short notice after the completion of the West Seti Storage Project because most of the structures of the Saryu canal might be already ready. After that our people near the border area would be forced to live virtually in swamps throughout the year.

The Saryu canal project consists of a canal network that connects the head regulaters of the barrages across the Saryu (Babai river) , West Rapti and Rohini ( Banganga river). A link channel 48.4 km long taking off from the left bank of the Girjapur barrage outfalls into the Saryu river just upstream of a barrage across it. A link canal 56 km long taking off from the left bank of the Saryu river outfalls into the West Rapti river just upstream of the Laxmanpur barrage. Beyond that a 125 km long canal taking off from the left bank of the West Rapti river extends up to the Banganga river.

The total length of the Saryu canal running almost parallel to Indo-Nepal border is about 230 km. In the original design the barrage across the Saryu river was at a location about 328 meters to the south of the railway bridge at Nanpara. Later, the design was modified and the location of the barrage was shifted 10 km to the north from the original site. The longitudinal gradient of the Saryu canal has been reduced to a minimum. It is only one meter on a stretch of 9 km. The adoption of such extremely mild slope permitted the alignment of the canal to be pushed as far as possible to the north very close to Indo-Nepal border specially in its middle and lower reaches.

Normally siphons are provided to deliver canal water across a river which do not hinder the river flow. A much higher average slope of the canal is required for the operation of this type of cross drainage structure, which has to operate under pressurized condition. A free flow hydraulic regime needs to be maintained at the river crossing if the average gradient of the canal is to be reduced. For reducing the average slope of the Saryu canal an altogether a different type of structures has been devised, which at first glance drives anybody crazy. Barrages have been built across the rivers to elevate the river water to such a level that would allow free passage of canal water across the river into the canal taking off from the other side of the river The contentious Laxmanpur barrage is one of such structures devised to deliver the water from the Girjapur barrage across the West Rapti river..

It would be necessary to maintain all the time pond water upstream of the barrage above certain fixed level to keep the Saryu canal running at desired capacity. Thus the pond would always be full, with the result that a sizeable area of lands in Nepalese territory could remain perpetually submerged. When the river is in flood, the water would be spreading out onto the lands that were never before regarded prone to flooding.

The Saryu canal is expected to cross innumerable small rivers and drains on its way. Embankments and dikes are needed to train these drains and small rivers for the protection of the Saryu canal. These river training structures could also result in widespread flooding inside Nepal where the canal route is close to the border.

Downstream Irrigation Benefits

After the implementation of the West Seti Project exclusively for power generation we would forfeit for ever an opportunity to share with India downstream benefits accruing to them from the irrigation development in their territory. Thus at present we are on the verge of providing West Seti and Karnali waters to India for free. None of our institutions has so far raised any serious objections to it. If the recent reporting of the Indian news media on India’s rivers-linking project is correct, now India appears to be agreeing to buy water delivered from other countries like Nepal for distribution across India. As far as the India’s rivers-linking plan is concerned there is ample justification that the Bangladesh might have to be concerned, as a result they are now raising their voice against it. It should, however, be said with irony that perhaps Nepal should, on the contrary, be even pleased because India is now prepared to pay at least some amount for waters supplied to their rivers linking project despite the fact that we were prepared to provide them regulated West Seti and other river waters for free.

Clause 126 of Our Constitution

There will be significantly large downstream irrigation benefit accruable to India after the completion of the West Seti Storage Dam Project. Such benefit has been thoroughly evaluated in the Karnali Multipurpose Project study. The Columbia River Treaty between the USA and Canada has set a precedence that the upstream country building storage dam project in its territory is entitled to get a fair share of the downstream benefits accruing to lower riparian country.

Agricultural production over a vast area adjoining the Karnali river in the Indian territory is at present greatly constrained by the scarcity of water needed for irrigation particularly in dry seasons. The regulated West Seti flow could be used for increasing the cropping intensities of the Sarda Sahayak irrigation system or the Saryu irrigation system in the Utter Pradesh province of India. It is not necessary to build a new barrage for the diversion. The West Seti regulated flow could be diverted for irrigation from the existing Girjapur barrage into the Sarda Sahayak canal or the Saryu canal. Additional canal network would not be needed for the delivery of water. The existing capacity of the canal system would be adequate.

According to the study carried out by the SOGREAH of the France, if the year 2003 is taken as the reference year and the 1989 price level is adopted at a discount rate of 10%, the total discounted power benefit of the West Seti project would be 912 million US Dollars against a discounted cost of the project estimated at 456 million US Dollars. Thus the total net discounted power benefit of the project could be 456 million US Dollars. Based on the feasibility study of the Karnali High Dam project the total net discounted irrigation benefit of the West Seti project at 1989 price level for the reference year 2003 could be as high as 720 million US Dollars. It implies that the net irrigation benefit of the West Seti project could be much greater than the net power benefit. Now a very big question arises. Should we ignore the West Seti downstream irrigation benefit? Will we be morally correct to do so? Will it not be a treason apart from being in breach of the Clause 126 of our constitution? Perhaps these are some of the questions that should be answered by the legal and constitutional experts before taking the decision to implement this project.

Rivers Linking Plan

Government of India has proposed to launch a grandiose plan to link all the major rivers flowing in their territory. For those people closely watching the development of water resources in India such plan is nothing new. This idea was first put forward by Dr. K.L. Rao in 1972 then the Minister for Irrigation and Power in the Government of India. He had proposed to link the Ganga and the Cauvery rivers Such interconnection would involve a pumping lift of about 400 meters for delivering water across the Vindhya mountain. Needless to say that it would take very long time to implement such grandiose plan. It took Europe several centuries to link major rivers despite the fact that it was merely for inland water transportation.

In Europe the canal navigation era started towards the end of the 17th century. France took the lead integrating its national waterway system further by forging the missing links. In the north the Saint-Quentin Canal, with a 3.5 mile tunnel, opened in 1810, linking the North Sea and the Schelds and Lys systems with the English Channel via the Somme and with Paris and Le Havre via the Oise and Seine. The Rhine- Rhone Canal, opened in 1834, provided a direct north-to-south route. The Sambre-Oise Canal linked the French canal system with the Belgian network via the Meuse.

In Germany in the late 17th and early 18th centuries the three great rivers, the Elb, Oder, and Weser, were linked by canal. The Ludwig Canal, forming part of the Rhine-Main-Danube route, was opened in 1840. A nationwide Russian canal system connecting the Baltic and Caspian seas via the Neva and Volga rivers became navigable in 1718. In the 19th century Russia made connections between the heads of navigation of its great rivers, the Volga, Dnepr, Don, Dvina, and Ob.

In the last century existing small canals were upgraded and many new canals much larger in size were built in Europe. In Germany the 467 km long Mittelland Canal was opened in 1938 that completed the east-west link in a system of about 11,265 km of inland waterways, extending from the Dortmund-Ems Canal east of the Rhine to the Elbe north of Magdeburg. The Nord-Sud Canal (or Elbe-Seitenkanal) was completed in 1976. This canal leaves the Elbe about 20 miles above Hamburg and, running south, joins the Mittelland Canal near Wolfsburg shortening the route between Hamburg and the Ruhr by 134 miles. The Main-Danube canal connecting the Rhine with the Black Sea was completed in 1992.

France's many of the low capacity canals are being raised to the 1,350-ton standard. A major development planned in the 1970s in cooperation with West Germany was the construction to this standard of the North Sea-Mediterranean waterway via the canalized Rhone and Rhine rivers. The Rhine has been navigable between Basel and Rheinfelden since 1934. In The Netherlands the extensive canal system based on large natural rivers and serving the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam has required relatively small improvement. The Juliana Canal was built in 1935 to bypass the Meuse River between Roermond and Maastricht and it was further improved after Second World War. The Twente Canal opened in 1936.

In the former Soviet Union navigation played a major role in the country's economy. The Volga-Don Canal, 63 miles in length, was completed in 1952. The Moscow-Volga Canal, built in 1937, runs 80 miles from the Volga to the Moskva River at Moscow. Among other important navigation canals are the 127-mile canal connecting different systems enabling to link Baltic with the Black Sea, the White Sea- Baltic Canal built in 1933.