Strategic Environmental Assessment of National Water Plan, Nepal BY Ram B. Khadka

1. Strategic Environmental Assessment of National Water Plan, Nepal BY Ram B. Khadka

2. Nepal: An Introduction Location: Nepal is theHimalayan Kingdom known as the Land of the Mt. Everest and the birthplace of Lord Buddha. The country is situated in South Asia, bordered on the north by China and on the south, west and east by India.

3. Nepal: General Information Topographical Features: Nepal is a mountainous country with the Himalayan belt in the north, the hilly region and fertile valleys in the Middle and the narrow strip of plain in the South, allrunning parallel to each other from East to West. Climate: The country has diverse climatic conditions. It is generally cold in the mountainous region, mild weather in the hills, and warm in the plains. Rainfall:1,500 -2,500mm (average) Capital: Kathmandu, a historical city with rich cultural heritage is Nepal's capital with 1.5 million population.

5. Background information • 6000 Rivers, mostly trans-Himalayan and snow –fed • Drain 194,471 km2 • 225 billion cubic liters of water is available Annually • 15 billion cubic liters of water have been utilized so far

6. Background information • 72 percent of population have an access to water supply • 25 percent have access to sanitation facility • 0.76 million ha of agriculture land have been irrigated • Hydropower development potential is 83000MW, at present only 619MW has been generated.

7. Background information • Water is one of the major natural resources for economic development • Inspite of many efforts made in the past water resource development is slow, • In order to make water resource development comprehensive, systematized and accelerate the process of development, Government of Nepal issued Water Resource Strategy in 2002.

8. Water Resource Strategy (WRS) for Nepal WRS contains following 10 action programs: • management water-Induced disaster • management of watershed and aquatic ecosystem • domestic water supply and sanitation • Irrigation facilities for agriculture • development of hydropower for electricity • water-based cultural, recreational, and eco-tourism activities • amendment the existing water resource policy and legal framework • water-related information systems • development of regional and bi-lateral co-operation and • revision and modification of exsisting institutional procedural mechanism.

9. National Water Plan for Nepal(NWP) In order to operationalize WRS of Nepal, a National Water Plan was developed and endorsed by the government (2005).The following are the action programs contained in the NWP The implementation of NWP activities is to take place within the time frame of 5,15 and 20 years.

10. National Water Plan (NWP)Contd. • Management of major types of water induced disasters • Improvement of water Quality and watersheds • Provide safe drinking water to 100% people of Nepal • Provide irrigation facilities to 100% arable land

11. National Water Plan (NWP)Contd. • Develop 4000MW of hydropower • Provide water to 100% industry, navigation and tourism • Enhance inland fisheries and increase the production to 87000 MT per year • Establish hydrometric stations to 370 at strategic places and disseminate the information

12. National Water Plan (NWP)Contd • Establish regional cooperation for water sharing fully • Revise and refine the existing legal framework, develop policies, guidelines, norms and standards. • Restructure administrative institutions revise and improve administrative mechanism.

13. Application of SEA in NWP • No legal requirement for SEA in Nepal • Water Energy Commission of Nepal decided to apply SEA in NWP voluntarily to make plan environmentally sound and sustainable. • SEA was carried out based on secondary sources of Information and an extensive public consultation with some field verification. • Followed screening, scoping, baseline information collection, impact identification and prediction, mitigation measures and environmental management plan.

14. Application of SEA in NWP • Stakeholders consultation at different stages • Use of internationally recognized checklist, interaction matrix, and Impact summary matrix (Saddler and Verheem, 1996). • Issues identified in scoping were classified into i physical, ii biological iii socio-economic/cultural and iv legal and institutional components.

15. Issue Analysis and Prediction NWP was examined whether, • Issues were addressed in NWP • Assessment of the status of issues included • Mitigation measures are provided Physical Issues • Downstream release of water, submerging of large amount of farmland, water logging, extraction of ground water-lowering of water level • Formation of new flood plain • Water pollution due to chemical fertilizer and pesticides • No Measures are mentioned in policies, guidelines and no standards

16. Issue Analysis and Prediction Biological Issues: effect on; • Forest, flora, animals both aquatic and Terrestrials • Protected areas, wild animal habitat, • Destruction of biodiversity • Effect on fish and fisheries • Production of Green House Gas (GHG) • Downstream Pollution

17. Issue Analysis and Prediction Socio-Economic/Cultural Issue • employment opportunity, • local market development, • reduced drudgery in women and children, • skilled manpower development, • gender, • enhancement of local organizations. • land acquisition, • displacement, and resettlement, • cultural malpractices, and pressure on social services

18. Issue Analysis and Prediction Legal and Institutional Component Policy conflict No coordination Improper legal framework ineffective in Implementation No water quality standards, no code of conduct, No waste water treatment commitment The private sector projects are operating well The government sector projects do not function properly because of the financial limitation imposed by finance act No comprehensive legislation

19. Mitigation Measures /Alternative Options Mitigation measures at strategic level can involves: • rewriting the strategic actions to minimize negative environmental effects and enhance the beneficial one, • establishing management guidelines for implementing strategic action, • shifting responsibility to lower tier of strategic action or in project level, and • no action alternative.

20. Mitigation Measures /Alternative Options Physical Components • Maintaining water flow down stream : release of 10% dry period flow plus existing water requirement in downstream. • Downstream Water Pollution and Groundwater Quality ; Standards and policy guidelines • Use of Inundated Upland Fields and Forest • Cloud Burst, Glacial Lake Outburst Flood, • and Landslide Dam Flood; Minimization • Erosions, Landslides, and Sedimentation: minimization • Lowering of Ground Water ;Policy guidelines • Water logging and Soil Modification;Policy guidelines

21. Mitigation Measures /Alternative Options Forest Vegetation and Wild animals; • Forest and Vegetation; Policy guidelines and standards • Wildlife and Biodiversity; • Protected Areas; • Aquatic flora and Fauna

22. Mitigation Measures /Alternative Options Socio-economic and Cultural Issues ;Mostly to be addressed by issuing of policy guidelines, directives, standards, and implementation guidelines • Employment Opportunities; • Economic Activities • Local Market Development Market • Skilled manpower development; • Reduce Drudgery to Women and Children • Cultural Practice; • Land Acquisition, Displacement and Resettlement • Pressure on Social Service • Gender Issue

23. Mitigation Measures /Alternative Options Legal and Institutional Component • Comprehensive National Water Resource Policy • Action Plans for Water resource and Environment Laws • Legal Regime for Ground Water Management • Pollution Standards for Enforcement of Environment • Protection Act • Strengthen Community-Based Water User Organizations

24. Environmental Management Plan (EMP) • rewriting, strategy and Action Plans, development of policy guidelines for implementation of directives to project-level implementations are the key strategic mitigation prescriptions. • EMP of National Water Plan should examine whether the issues are addressed and the corresponding gaps are identified. • In SEA of NWP strategic EMP parameters on physical, biological, socio-economic, and cultural components of the environment have been identified and recommendation should be made to apply in project level activities • The second part in EMP is to monitor the implementation of mitigation prescriptions. Monitoring such as (i) baseline (ii) impact and (iii) compliance monitoring are applicable to strategic actions.

25. Conclusion and Recommendation Analysis has been carried out for the consideration of in the upper tier of decision-making. The key environmental issues identified were: • downstream release of water and water use right, • inundation, • downstream and ground water pollution, • issues on the loss of forests and wildlife, both aquatic and terrestrial, • issues on boom and bust cycle related to workforce, • land acquisition displacement and resettlement, and • ineffective environmental laws, regulations, and standards and institutions related to water resource development. • Issues on human resource development and employment opportunity.

26. Conclusion and Recommendation Minimization of the adverse issues and enhancement of beneficial issues of NWP implementation at the Strategic Level are: • revising and modification of existing system of legal framework, • revising and writing of water resource development policies, Plans and programs, and • Issuing policy guidelines, standards, norms, reforming existing institutional and procedural aspects, etc. THANK YOU