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Poverty Alleviation And Sun-Kosi Project By AB Thapa It is well
recognized that the extreme poverty
rampant in Nepal is the root cause
of present widespread unrest within our
country. Already for quite some time
countless seminars, meetings and conferences
are being held in expensive hotels simply
to confirm, reconfirm and again and again
to confirm it. Unfortunately only
very few have seriously worked
hard to identify the satisfactory solution
to resolve the poverty alleviation problems
that face our country. Nepal could leap-frog
in strengthening our country’s economy if
we succeeded in rational utilization of
our country’s land and water resources.
Needless to say that it is a big
challenge. We should be able to find
ways to use our natural resources to
generate new employment opportunities within
the country itself. It certainly calls
for great skill and also the
utmost caution. Our country could
easily be played in the hands of
some shrewd commission agents determined
to enrich themselves by betraying the vital
interest of our country. At present the
Sun-Kosi dam project stands out from all
other water resources projects as the best
because this project could help to generate
employment opportunities to a vast number
of our people within Nepal itself.
Implementation of the Sun-Kosi project is
equally important to save the life and
property of millions in Nepal and India
from devastating Kosi floods. There is already
an imminent danger that the Kosi River
might soon abandon its present course and
shift to the east if the Sun-Kosi dam
is not built in time. As a
result, we would not have much difficulty
to mobilize within a short period
necessary financial resources to implement this
project. Natural Resources and
Development Nepal should pursue a
policy to exploit our water and other
natural resources as far as possible to
achieve rapid growth of our country's
economy that would be helpful to raise
the living standard of common people.
Exploitation of water resources alone should
not be our goal. We have before us
few glaring past cases which could
be an example to all of us.
Just after the independence of India,
Bihar was regarded as the
most prosperous state. It was very rich
in mineral resources. After a half
century of widespread exploitation of
its vast mineral wealth, Bihar
became the poorest state of India. The
states like the Harayana and Punjab in India,
and the former West Punjab in Pakistan have
achieved the highest degree of success in
raising the living standard of common people
because they were able to exploit
their water resources for the development of
their own region by building Bhakra, Mangla
and other dams. The Sunkosi dam project
mostly to serve our country could help to
initiate works to improve the economic
condition of a vast number of our
common people. This project could work
miracles for the development of Nepal. However,
we would be inviting one of the biggest
water induced disaster accompanied by loss of
life and property of millions in our
region if this project is sidelined much
longer. We Could Easily
Be Misled It surprises all of
us to find that the decision makers in
our country are seen in a great hurry
to hand over big projects like the 10.8
million KW Karnali Chisapani Project to
private entrepreneurs to develop them for
exporting energy to neighboring country, despite
the fact that it requires a great
deal of patience and careful planning if
such projects are to be implemented in
the interest of our country. We could
easily be misled if we hastily took
decision to implement water resources mega-projects
without thoroughly reviewing each and
every aspect of such projects. It
is also very strange that our planners
and policy makers are not seen to pay
much attention to the implementation of
the Sun-Kosi dam project that could have
helped to a great extent to resolve our
poverty alleviation problems by strengthening
the weakening economy of our country. Moreover,
our country would not be finding much
difficulty to mobilize financial resources as
it is urgent to implement this project to
save the life and property of millions in
India. The Sun-Kosi Dam
Project The Sunkosi development
has emerged as the most important project
. This project has
become indispensable for the safety of
life and property of millions in
our region. Luckily for us, it
is also the most attractive
project. This project could provide
an excellent opportunity for swift growth of
our country's worsening economy. Moreover,
we might be able to implement this
project on our own without
excessively increasing the present
level of foreign assistance to
our country. Unfortunately, virtually
all of us including the
donors actively engaged in Nepal's water
resources development are unaware
of it. Such lack of
awareness of our country's
water resources development problems
could indeed be very harmful. The Sun-Kosi dam as
well as the Kosi dam will be needed
to control the Kosi River. The Sun-Kosi
dam project would have to be the
first to be completed or else it
would not be possible later on to
build it on technical grounds. The idea
of constructing a storage dam across the
Sun-Kosi at Kurule is not a new one. Many
technical teams were involved in the past
in conducting the study of
this project. An Indian technical team
was the first to conduct a
reconnaissance study of the Sun-Kosi dam site
for the Kosi flood control in 1946. The
team had favoured Kurule dam site because
it appeared geologically sound and allowed to
have a big storage reservoir that
extended in Dudh-Kosi and Sun-Kosi valleys. Nepal's attention was
drawn to Sun-Kosi diversion project to
irrigate lands in Terai in 1960s. A
pre-feasibility level study of the
Sun-Kosi dam project for irrigation in
Terai was completed in 1968 under
the technical and financial assistance of
the UNDP/FAO. This study has also identified
Kurule as the appropriate site for
the Sun-Kosi dam linked with
a tunnel to deliver
the Sun-Kosi water into Terai. The
Master Plan study of the Kosi basin
prepared under Japanese assistance in
1985 endorsed the same location
for the Sun-Kosi dam. Limited External
Support Needed The main component
of the Sun-Kosi dam project urgently
needed for the control of the
Kosi flood is the dam itself. The dam
height, according to Kosi basin master plan,
is going to be relatively small.
It is expected to be between 147 m
and 195 m . In initial stage the capacity
of the power station could be only
about 600 MW. The development of irrigation
expected to cover a total net area
of about 3 lacks ha in
Nepal could be spread over a
long period. In this way it would
be possible to bring down the
initial investment on irrigation infrastructure
development and hence the total initial cost
of the project. The Sun-Kosi dam project
is not too big in size although
the benefit accruable to Nepal from
this project is enormous. If the
advantages like the easy accessibility to
Sun-Kosi project site and the short distance
for the transmission of electricity from
its power house to the main national
grid are also taken into account,
the total initial cost of the
Sun-Kosi project could be fairly
close to the 400 MW Arun-3 project
cost. Nepal would be considered
perfectly capable to implement on
her own the Sun-Kosi project under the
financial assistance of foreign donors since
Nepal was qualified by the donor community to be
competent to implement the
Arun-3 Project a long time back nearly
two decades ago. Cheap Electricity The Sun-Kosi dam would
anyway be needed for the
flood control, and similarly the diversion
tunnel to deliver the Sun-Kosi
water for irrigation in
Terai. There can hardly be any
other substitutes for those structures. Under
such circumstances about 4 ( four ) billion units
(KWh) of firm electric energy could be
generated at a relatively small
additional investment. The generation cost
of electricity could be only about one US
Cent per unit. It need not be
explained that the generation of such
cheap power would have extremely
favourable impact on Nepal's ailing
industries. Unfortunately, such possibility has
never been seriously considered neither
by the government nor by institutions
like the FNCCI. The FNCCI
often seen raising
voice in support of the
private hydropower developers should throw
its full weight behind the Sun-Kosi
dam project to ensure the lowering of
electricity tariff. Irrigation and Power
Benefits The Sun-Kosi dam project could bring under
year round irrigation about 300 thousand hectares of land inside Nepal. It
would be possible to get one additional dry season crop if the streams and rivulets now
serving as the source for irrigation in the project area during the wet
season could somehow be made perennial in dry season also. Such streams and
the rivulets could easily be made perennial in dry season at minimum cost by linking
them with the canal carrying the water diverted into Terai from the Sun-Kosi. We can
expect an additional agricultural production of over half a million tons soon after the
completion of the Sun-Kosi project. The Sun-Kosi power station is expected to
generate about 4000 GWh (four billion units) firm power every year. The generation cost of
the electricity would be very low if the project is planned and executed prudently. Nepal
might be able to produce electricity at a cost of only
about US Cent 1 per KWh. Why the Sun-Kosi Dam Project First
? At present the decision makers
in our country are unable to understand why the
implementation of the Sun-Kosi dam project should precede the
commencement of the construction of the Kosi dam project. In 1997
an agreement was signed between Nepal and India to carry out the feasibility studies
of the Sun-Kosi project and the Kosi project along with a navigation canal linking Nepal
with the seaport. This agreement is a substantial modification to the earlier
understanding reached between the prime ministers of Nepal and India that covered only the
Kosi high dam. The modification was made based on the findings of Nepal explained to
Indian side in the meeting held in 1997. There is a very close relationship between
the Sun-Kosi and the Kosi projects. Such interrelationship required the inclusion of the
Sun-Kosi dam project in the Kosi development study. It is explained
hereinafter why the Sun-Kosi project should be built first. (a)
The diversion of the Sun-Kosi
river at Kurule is the most important project for agriculture development in
Nepal in near future. This very important project would be precluded for ever after
the completion of the construction of the Kosi high dam project. Fortunately the
Kosi high dam project can be built even after the completion of the construction of the
Sun-Kosi high dam project. (b)
The Kosi high dam along with
a navigation canal to link Nepal with the seaport is going to be a very big
project. It will take a very long time to implement this project. The Kosi River is
now on the verge of shifting to the east. Fortunately the Sun-Kosi dam
could control the Kosi floods in the interim period until the Kosi high dam
would be completed. (c)
Very serious downstream
degradation problems can be expected to arise soon after the completion
of big storage dam projects. It is due to release of clear water from the reservoir in big
quantity. Such acute degradation problem was encountered in the Boulder dam of the
USA. The river bed in the 77 mile canyon reach had been lowered between 6 and 14 feet.
Owing to the exposure of rock ledges the river became stable. However, at Needles, about
130 kilometers away, the river bed rose by 6 metres necessitating the construction of very
expensive flood control structures. Similar phenomenon could be expected soon after the
completion of the Kosi high dam also. The Sun-Kosi high dam built to control the floods in
the interim period could help to reduce downstream degradation. It will enable
to determine with greater accuracy the volume of flood regulation storage. In Conclusion It is urgent to
implement the Sun-Kosi dam project to resolve
our country’s poverty alleviation problems and
also to save the life and property of
millions in Nepal and India. As a result,
there is an acute need to carry out
various works related to this project with
great vigor and determination. We can hope
from the past experience that the detailed
study as well as the construction of this
project could be completed roughly within
the next ten years if the financial
mobilization works and the detailed study as
far as possible are carried out side by
side. |
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