KATHMANDU: Twenty four years have passed since the Nepal-India Integrated Treaty on Mahakali River was signed. However, the Indian side has been dithering in implementing the Treaty.
Although voices for the implementation of the Treaty have been raised from the people’s level to the diplomatic level, India is found dillydallying in forwarding works related to the Treaty.
As a result, the Mahakali Irrigation third phase canal construction works have been stalled. Weed has started growing on the project’s main canal as it remains incomplete.
As per Clause 2 (2) of the Treaty, it is the responsibility of India to construct the head regulator and the canal from the Tanakpur dam up to Nepal’s border for releasing water that Nepal is entitled to get from the dam.
For this India needs to construct about 1200 meters main canal up to Nepal’s border. Although India some time back started preparations for carrying out works for this, it has not speeded up the works.
Nepal’s Mahakali Irrigation Project third phase has constructed 13 kilometers main canal under the project and an additional 15 kilometers of it is under construction. The third phase works were started in fiscal year 2007/08 from the Brahmadev area of Bhimdattanagar municipality.
Nepal is not in a position to bring water from the Tanakpur dam through the 13-kilometers canal it has constructed as India has not constructed the structures under its responsibility at the very source of the main canal itself.
“Irrigation facility should have been made available on even some portion of land by constructing branch canals from the main canal already constructed. But we see that the process for this has not been started even when the main canal is covered with grass and has started breaking,” rued Bikram Nath, a local of Brahmadev.
Director of Mahakali Irrigation Project third phase, Prachanda Dev Bishta said they have forwarded works on construction of a canal for providing irrigation facility on Nepal side in areas close to the Tanakpur barrage.
As per the agreement, Nepal is entitled to get 1,000 Cusecs water from Tanakpur and the Project has the target of irrigating 33,000 hectares land up to Malakheti of Kailali.
Apart from this, the Indian side is not ready to give irrigation water to Mahakali municipality (Dodhara Chandani) as per the terms of the Treaty. “It is the unofficial view of the Indian side that they would give water to Dodhara Chandani only after the construction of the Pancheshwor. It is almost eight years since Nepal has submitted the detailed project report of Pancheshwor to India.
But still, India has not done anything in that regard,” Bishta added.
As per the Treaty, India should provide water for irrigating 3,500 hectares of land at Dodhara Chandani in Nepal. “The Treaty states that India should provide 353 Cusecs water from its Sharada canal near the Banbasa bridge to Dodhara Chandani. Nepal has prepared the DPR for the construction of the main canal at Dodhara Chandani which is estimated to cost Rs 4 billion,” he added.
A secretary-level meeting of both countries including the water resource experts had decided to settle the topic of giving water to Nepal from the Sharada canal through consensus within six months. This deadline has been over nine months back. India has to construct about one-kilometer canal to the Nepal-India border starting from the Sharada canal.
The then Prime Minister of Nepal, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and his Indian counterpart PV Narsimha Rao had signed the Mahakali Treaty on Magh 29, 2052 BS.
Former minister and District Development Committee president, Rishi Raj Lumsali expresses doubt that India will give water to Nepal from the Mahakali. “A good 24 years have passed since the Treaty was signed.
Has India given a drop of water ever since ?” According to him, India is only dillydallying and it is not sincere.
Mahakali municipality mayor Bir Bahadur Sunar said the local people’s representatives have been approaching the higher bodies for taking meaningful initiatives for making irrigation water available to Dodhara Chandani from the Sharada barrage, but their request for the same has fallen on deaf ears.
According to him, it is wrong for India to say that it will provide the water only after the construction of the Pancheshwor Hydroelectricity Project. India should respect the terms of the Treaty, he argued.
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