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DAM-L LS: Nepal Hydro Project Fails to Meet Targets (fwd)

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subject: LS: Nepal Hydro Project Fails to Meet Targets
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Nepal: Hydro-Electric Project Fails to Meet Target Owing to Water Shortage

(December 12, 2000)

Text of report by Nepalese newspaper 'Kathmandu Post' via Nepal News 
web site on 12th December

       Ilam, 11th December: The Puwakhola hydro-electricity project, 
which has recently started generating power for commercial purposes, 
will not be able to generate electricity as expected in the dry 
season due to shortage of water.

       The shortage of water will result not only from the water 
shortage in the dry season but also because water from different 
points upstream is directed to farmers' field reducing the flow of 
water in the river.

       The Nepal Electricity Authority has recently named the project 
"Ilam Hydro-Electricity Centre". Chief of the centre Ram Kumar Yadav 
admitted that power generation by the project will be affected in the 
dry season in the months of Chaitra, Baishakh and Jestha (mid-March 
to mid-May).

       There are two turbines of 3.1 MW capacity each in the 6.2 MW 
power project and only one turbine will be able to operate throughout 
the dry season due to the shortage of water, according to the chief 
of the centre.

       On the other hand, the project, which cost about 1bn rupees, 
has been found to be faulty and constructed under pressure from some 
quarters, claim experts.

       Noted ecologist Dr Govind Shah, speaking at a programme 
organised recently by an organisation named Pro-public, pointed out 
that the JICA which conducted the feasibility study of the project 
had nowhere mentioned in its report that the project could be 
executed.

       He said: "There are faults in the very design of the project. 
JICA has not said the project should be undertaken. It has only said 
that it has carried out the feasibility study. It has been mentioned 
that the project can generate 20 to 25 MW of power but the project 
was undertaken under pressure from some quarters. Therefore, these 
problems have been encountered."

       A total of 2,500 litres of water per second is required to 
operate the two turbines, but in the dry season only 1,100 to 1,300 
litres of water are available per second, he said.

       Dr Shah also said that the soil where the penstock pipe has 
been installed is weak, putting the whole structure at risk.

       "The area where the penstock pipe has been installed has caved 
in 70 cm in 10 years, at the rate of 7 cm a year." Dr Shah said.

       Earlier, in his paper on "Benefits and effects of the project", 
Professor Yuddha Prasad Baidya said about 80 ha of land below the 
project site has been deprived of irrigation facility after the 
project used all the water from the river.



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