Why Is The Sun-Kosi Dam Project First?

By AB Thapa

Implementation of the Sunkosi development project has emerged as the most important task before us. This project would have to be implemented as soon as possible perhaps well ahead of the Kosi dam project to save the life and property of millions living in India and Nepal.

Hardly anyone knowing even moderately the Kosi flood problems would disagree that ultimately both the projects -Sunkosi dam project and Kosi dam project- would be needed to control the Kosi river. But the Sunkosi 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 There is yet another crucial factor that compels us to turn our main attention to the Sunkosi project. The Kosi river is already on the verge of shifting its course to the east far away from its present position. It might be quite unrealistic to expect that the mammoth Kosi dam project could be completed in time to control this river to prevent flood disaster since this project is going to be among the biggest projects in the world on a par with the Three Gorges Project of China. Thus the implementation of relatively small Sunkosi dam project has become indispensable for the safety of life and property of millions in our region in the interim. Luckily for us, it is also the most important project to our country. This project could provide an excellent opportunity for swift growth of our country's beleaguered 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 barely aware of it. Such lack of awareness of our country's water resources development problem can be extremely harmful. Some donors providing generous assistance in Nepal's water resources development are even being misled. Some of their assistance is being misused to preclude the viability of the Sunkosi and Kosi dam projects which have already been identified to be indispensable to save the life and property of millions. Thus the donors' understanding of our water resources problems in general and the problems with the Kosi in particular is very important. Only the combined efforts of all stakeholders including the donors can help to prevent one of the biggest water induced disaster that threatens our region..

Kosi Flood Problem

The Kosi river shifted from east to west over 120 km in the last 200 years. Fortunately, the embankments built about 50 years ago temporarily helped to check the lateral shifting of the Kosi. Soon the detention basin between the two embankments on the north of the barrage at Hanumannagar is going to be filled up. After that the embankments would be ineffective to control the lateral shifting of the Kosi river. It is feared after that the Kosi would again shift back to its old course about 120 km away to the east. Experts are predicting that such shifting of the Kosi river course would be accompanied with enormous loss of life and property. According to them storage dams would be indispensable to avert the Kosi flood disaster.

The Sunkosi Dam Project

The idea of constructing a storage dam across the Sunkosi at Kurule is not a new one. Many technical teams were involved in the past for conducting the study of such project.

An Indian technical team was the first to conduct a reconnaissance study of the Sunkosi dam site for the Kosi flood control in 1946. The team had favored Kurule dam site because it appeared geologically sound and allowed to have a big storage reservoir that extended in Dudhkosi and Sunkosi valleys.

Nepal's attention was drawn to Sunkosi diversion project to irrigate lands in Terai. A prefeasibility level study of the Sunkosi 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 Sunkosi dam linked with a tunnel to deliver the Sunkosi water into Terai. The Master Plan study of the Kosi basin prepared under Japanese assistance in 1985 endorsed the same location for the Sunkosi dam project.

Limited External Support Needed

The main component of the Sunkosi 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 Sunkosi dam project is not too big in size although the benefit accruable to Nepal from this project is enormous. If the factors like the easy accessibility to Sunkosi project site and short distance needed for the transmission of the electricity from its power house to the main national grid are also taken into account then the total initial cost of the Sunkosi project would be fairly close to the 400 MW Arun-3 project cost. It implies that Nepal would be considered perfectly capable to implement on her own the Sunkosi project under the financial assistance of foreign donors because Nepal was qualified by the donor community to be competent to implement way back nearly two decades ago the Arun-3 project.

Cheap Electricity

The Sunkosi dam would anyway be needed for the flood control, and similarly the diversion tunnel to deliver Sunkosi water for irrigation in Terai. There can hardly be any other substitutes for them. Under such circumstances about 4 ( four ) billion units (Kwh) of firm electric energy could be generated at a relatively small additional investment. Such generation cost of electricity could be only about one US Cent per unit. The possibility of generating such cheap power, that would have produced extremely favorable impact on Nepal's ailing industries, has never been seriously examined neither by the government nor by institutions like the FNCCI. The FNCCI often seen raising voice in support of the private hydropower developers does not seem to be much worried to find ways to lower the electricity tariff..

Threat to Sunkosi Project

In our country policy makers are often ignorant about technical matters. So it is not surprising that very recently loan money was used to conduct through a foreign consulting firm the feasibility study of the Dudhkosi dam project that would have precluded a viable Kosi dam project and would have in long run significantly reduced the scope of the Sunkosi project also. After the completion of the study even bids were called to award this project to private developers. All these things happened after the 1997 agreement between Nepal and India that had already paved the way to come to a general consensus that the Sunkosi and the Kosi dam projects are indispensable for the safety of millions of peoples in our region.

There is an urgent need to review our policy on private sector participation in power sector. Such review is necessary not to be misled in taking decisions affecting the projects crucial to our country such as the Sunkosi and Kosi projects.

In Conclusion

At present Nepal and India are jointly conducting studies of the Sunkosi dam project, Kosi dam project and Kosi navigation canal connecting Nepal with the seaport. Nepalese team participating in the study should explain their Indian counterparts involved in the Kosi study that greater emphasis should be laid on the study of the Sunkosi project since this project would have to be implemented at the earliest to avert Kosi flood disaster.

Needless to say that Nepal should pursue a policy to exploit our water and other natural resources as far as possible to achieve rapid expansion of our own country's economy that would help to raise the living condition of common people. Exploitation of water resources alone should not be our goal. We have before our eyes few very glaring cases to draw a lesson. For example Bihar ( just after the independence of India) was perhaps the most prosperous state. It was very rich in mineral resources. After a half century of widespread exploitation of its vast mineral wealth Bihar has become the poorest state of India. The states like Harayana and former East Punjab in India, and former West Punjab in Pakistan have achieved the highest degree of success in raising the living standard of the 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 our common people.

(Dr. Thapa writes on water resources)