Santa Bahadur Pun’s research while affiliated with Nepal Electrical Authority and other places

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Publications (7)


Tanakpur Barrage Thirteen Year Saga of the Nepal Canal Sill Level
  • Article

January 2010

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420 Reads

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4 Citations

Hydro Nepal Journal of Water Energy and Environment

Santa Bahadur Pun

The Tanakpur Barrage was constructed by India in the 1980s on her territory on the Mahakali river, as an "alternative" to the aging 1920 Sarada barrage, to irrigate 1.61 million hectares of land in India. The sill level of the Tanakpur regulator for the Nepal canal is EL 245 meters, which is 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) higher than the sill level for the corresponding regulator for India. India stresses that specified quantity of water flow for Nepal will be assured as the pond level of the barrage for power generation will be maintained at EL 246.7 meters. Such promises were made on the Gandak barrage, which also has a powerhouse on the canal, but as the pond level was not maintained, Nepal never got the specified quantity of water from the Gandak barrage. Over the last 13 years, India has been totally deaf to Nepal's request to lower the sill level. Instead, India, argues that the Tanakpur regulator for Nepal was already "constructed in 1992 before the treaty." India's modus operandi, whether for the Farakka, Tanakpur, or Laxmanpur barrages or the Mahali Sagar, Rasiawal-Khurd-Lotan, Kalkalwa-Holiya bunds, has always been to construct first then, over the years, formalize it. Like many of the structures along the Indo-Nepal border, if Nepal does not take a firm stand then the Nepal canal sill level at Tanakpur is heading to be another fait accompli, for Nepal. Key words: Tanakpur barrage; Sill level; Sarada barrage; Mahakali Treaty; India; Nepal DOI: 10.3126/hn.v5i0.2476 Hydro Nepal Vol. 5, July 2009 Page:2-7


The Kosi Pralaya; Could the Catastrophe have been Averted? And What Next?

May 2009

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27 Reads

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9 Citations

Hydro Nepal Journal of Water Energy and Environment

The Kosi river breached its eastern embankment at Kushah in Nepal on August 18, 2008 causing havoc and misery to over 50,000 Nepalese and 2.5 million Indians in the state of Bihar. The affected people lost their homes, farmlands and livelihoods. Four months after the disaster, the affected people are still living in plastic tents in winter. Due to the impact of this catastrophe on the more industrialized and prosperous eastern Nepal, the overall effect on the country's economy has been severe. At the time of the breach, the river was actually below the level of normal discharge. There was no big flood in Kosi. This was not Nature's wrath but simply human failings. Bihar's Water Resources Minister, Vijender Yadav, admitted "The breach happened due to lackadaisical maintenance of the embankment', but laid the blame on the "previous government". With timely action such a disaster could have been averted. Saif Uddin Soz, India's Union Minister for Water Resources, has already said publicly that "Kosi is in focus this time in particular…our main interest is flood control and irrigation," a statement that puts focus on implementation of the Sapta Kosi High Dam in Nepal. This dam will be built at a great social and environmental cost to the Nepalese people due to submergence of limited fertile valleys, displacement of large number of villagers and over 300 km of very large link canals from both banks of the dam (Kosi-Mechi and Kosi-Ghagra Links) to the Indian border. The attraction to Nepal is, of course, the 3,300 MW of power it will make available for export. The Sapta Kosi High Dam needs to wait until the vital 13-year pending issues of the "signed, sealed and done" 6,720 MW Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project on the Mahakali are finalized.


Paraguay, Bhutan and Nepal: Landlocked but Hydropower Rich Cases of the Lame duck, Flying Goose and Sitting Duck!

May 2009

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70 Reads

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4 Citations

Hydro Nepal Journal of Water Energy and Environment

Paraguay has 5.6 million people, Bhutan has 0.6 million and Nepal has 27 million, all small land locked countries with rich hydropower potential. The 12,600 MW Itaipu Project commissioned on Paraguay-Brazil border river, Parana, was the world’s largest hydropower plant until China’s Three Gorges superseded it in 2007. Paraguay’s share, half of Itaipu’s generation, is on average of about 44,000 million units annually with over 90% sold to Brazil. Nepal’s projected average annual generation from three major multipurpose projects, at Sapta Koshi, Karnali Chisapani and Pancheshwar’s 50%, totals about the same. Despite two decades of such large volume of power export, however, Paraguay remains the second poorest country in South America. Nepal, with a tiny 550 MW of hydropower capacity, is undergoing bouts of load shedding and is mired in controversies. Bhutan, with a mere export of about 1,300 MW, comprising 60% of the national revenue, has therefore been strongly recommended as the model for Nepal to replicate. If India is to maintain her 9% GDP growth rate then she will require 785,000 MW (6 times the present installed capacity) of power by 2026/27. Along with this demand for power, she will also need huge quantities of additional freshwater. While there are options for power, there are none for water. All large or small storage projects in Nepal augment water to the rivers flowing down to India. So far India’s policy has been to obtain this augmented water through Nepal’s default. Nepal needs to seriously consider why Paraguay, despite its huge export, is a lame duck while Bhutan with a tiny export is a flying goose!Key words: Power export, Karnali Chisapani, Pancheshwar, Sapta Koshi, Nepal-India Water Resources negotiations,Nepal’s default, Paraguay, Bhutandoi: 10.3126/hn.v3i0.1895Hydro Nepal: Journal of Water, Energy and Environment Issue No. 3, January, 2008 Page 4-8


The Nepal-India Water Relationship: Challenges

January 2009

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478 Reads

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25 Citations

The concept of Indo-Nepal Power Exchange was first broached in BS2006 (AD1950) by the newly arrived ambassador of independent India, Chandreshwar Prasad Narain Singh (CPN Singh), during discussions with Mohun Shumshere, the last autocratic Rana Prime Minister of Nepal. Mohun Shumshere confided (Pande 1982) in CPN Singh of his Rs1.8 crore plan to generate electricity at 6 paisa per unit from the 22 MW1 Gaidakot hydropower-cum-irrigation project in Nawalpur/Nawalparasi by diverting the Kali Gandaki waters through a tunnel. The shrewd Indian ambassador advised Mohun Shumshere that he was making a big mistake as the Indian government was soon executing the large Kosi High Dam Project at Barahchhetra (incidentally inside Nepal) that would avail electricity at 2 paisa per unit for Nepal, North Bihar and Bengal. Mohun Shumshere swallowed this bait and roundly chided the 22 MW project initiators2 for ‘nearly wasting his Rs 2 crores on a useless project!’ Many Nepalese now believe that if this Gaidakot hydropower project of 1950 had been implemented, then this would have done what the 20 MW Chilime has done to the nation 50 years later—mobilise scarce local skills and resources.


Inundation at the Southern Border

January 2009

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45 Reads

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5 Citations

Inundation is the submergence of standing crops, settlements and natural vegetation over a long period of time, which not only affects human activities but also damages property and lives. Inundation occurs adjacent to the flow-paths of natural water bodies for several reasons. The first reason is the high intensity rainfall in the gentle country slope area, where normal sheet flow cannot drain the standing water depth quickly enough. The second reason is the congestion or obstruction of natural flowpath due to human activities.


Introduction

January 2009

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12 Reads

The very geography of Nepal and India is such that these two countries must live together and engage with each other in many spheres: social, economic and political. Of all the issues that these two countries have to deal with, water resources is not only the most important one, but also the one that has become a very sensitive matter. It is because water, a scarce resource in south Asia, is the most important natural resource that Nepal possesses, although most of it is yet to be exploited.


Hydropower Development in Nepal: Lessons from Past Models

July 2008

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75 Reads

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12 Citations

Hydro Nepal Journal of Water Energy and Environment

In the last six decades since the 1951 overthrow of Rana regime, hydropower development in Nepal was implemented under various models depending on the donors. The 1950s and ‘60s were the era of bilateralism to be subsumed by multilateralism of the 1970s and ‘80s only to be trodden over by liberalization and privatization of the 1990s and 2000. If one were to scrutinize these bilateral, multilateral and liberalized models in the hydropower sector closely, certain interesting patterns emerge. Nepal could well learn lessons from them. Hydro Nepal: Journal of Water, Energy and Environment Issue No. 2, (2008) pp. 5-8

Citations (6)


... Moreover, the Multipurpose Projects on the Koshi River and the Ganda River were intended to provide irrigation to 61,640 ha, along with the Gandak west canal was intended to irrigate 40,800 ha of land in Nepal; however, these projects never received these amounts of irrigation, with only 35,200 ha in the Koshi west in Sirha and 10,000 ha in Nawalparasi. However, the gate is opened by the Indian side and these areas are inundated during the monsoon season, flooding rice crops and remaining wet during the winter, where they hinder winter crop plantation (Dhungel and Adhikari 2009;Pradhan 2009). These inundations are caused not only by the damming of the rivers at the border but also by heavy sand and stone quarrying upstream (Shrestha 2013). ...

Reference:

Land Degradation
Inundation at the Southern Border
  • Citing Chapter
  • January 2009

... After the Nepali Congress's ascendance to power, Nepal was moved with an interest in developmental programs, which included irrigation facilities and power supply and soil erosion. On the other, the primary interest of India at that time was control of flood hazards brought by Kosi; the same is also reflected in the sequence of wording in the preamble of the KPA 1954 (Pun, 2009). However, despite the entire burden of cost, approximately Rs. 450 million was given out by India, which was no less than a strenuous investment (Untawale, 1974). ...

The Nepal-India Water Relationship: Challenges
  • Citing Article
  • January 2009

... Three major structures resulted on the river: a barrage; two flood embankments (respectively 146 and 123 km long) along the river running across the border; and two canals protruding from the barrage for irrigating land in both countries. The barrage and embankments were completed in 1962 and the eastern canal in 1964 (Pun, 2009). As per the agreement, India's state government of Bihar is responsible for all project-related management, repair, and maintenance works. ...

The Kosi Pralaya; Could the Catastrophe have been Averted? And What Next?
  • Citing Article
  • May 2009

Hydro Nepal Journal of Water Energy and Environment

... India also offered preferential treatment to Nepalese exports in 1971 and in subsequent treaties of 1991, 1993, 1996, 2002 and 2009, tariff and other duty concessions to Nepalese exports were offered. India has also been involved in infrastructural development in Nepalin building dams, roads, highways and railway projects (Pun 2008;Taneja and Chowdhury 2010). ...

Paraguay, Bhutan and Nepal: Landlocked but Hydropower Rich Cases of the Lame duck, Flying Goose and Sitting Duck!
  • Citing Article
  • May 2009

Hydro Nepal Journal of Water Energy and Environment

... After the Tanakpur debate in Nepal, both within the parliament and in the press and streets, questions regarding both the substance and procedures for negotiating water treaties with India were asked (Gyawali, 2009). However, nothing could be done and Tanakpur became a fait accompli, and the Memorandum of Understanding remained in limbo (Pun, 2009a). Thus, it proves that cooperation between Nepal and India can be viewed as the consequence of hydro-hegemony rather than mutuality (Bagale & Adhikari, 2020). ...

Tanakpur Barrage Thirteen Year Saga of the Nepal Canal Sill Level
  • Citing Article
  • January 2010

Hydro Nepal Journal of Water Energy and Environment

... Following the 1962 war between India and China, India forced Nepal to retract the tender of the Asian Development Bankfinanced Kohalpur-Banbasa Road from a Chinese contractor. 1 Similarly, in Nepal's water resources sector, regional geopolitics play an influential role. For instance, in the 1960s, India's Trishuli and Phewa hydropower projects competed with China's Sunkoshi and Seti projects (Pun, 2008). More recently, the 1200 MW Budhi Gandaki hydropower has been H. Vasani (*) School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK e-mail: h.vasani@uea.ac.uk rescinded twice after being awarded to a Chinese development company. 2 Likewise, the West Seti project handed to the China Three Gorges Corporation in 2011 failed to operationalise and has been given to India's National Hydroelectric Power Corporation as of September 2022. ...

Hydropower Development in Nepal: Lessons from Past Models
  • Citing Article
  • July 2008

Hydro Nepal Journal of Water Energy and Environment