Strategic Environmental Assessment of

National Water Plan, Nepal

BY

Ram B. Khadka
 Nepal: An Introduction

Location:
Nepal is the
Himalayan 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.
 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, all running 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.
 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
 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.
 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.
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.
 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.
 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
 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
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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.
 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
 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
 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
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
 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.
 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.
 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.

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