While the complaint is often heard that Davis drinking water is not the tastiest beverage around, the city has not come close to violating any health standards.
Meanwhile, the situation in sub-Saharan Africa is a much different story: 1.1 million people die in the region every year from water-related diseases, including cholera and malaria.
The 1000 Wells Project Davis chapter is working to raise awareness and funds in order to build wells and infrastructure in various African communities. The organization's main two weeks of fundraising begins Apr. 19.
"Clean water is a fundamental human right and it hurts us to know that there are 1.1 billion people out there that don't have access to clean water," said Tiffany Tao, a senior psychology and communication double major and head coordinator of the project.
The lack of clean water often has devastating impacts for communities in Africa that are already dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Eighty percent of all deaths in developing countries are caused by waterborne illnesses, many of which afflict immune systems weakened by fighting off the prevalent virus.
Additionally, the miles-long walk conducted by many in these communities in search of water means children skip out on school and leaves women vulnerable to attack.
"We need to do more to improve water quality and supply to improve their general lives," said William Fleenor, a UC Davis professor in the civil and environmental engineering department.
According to the coordinators involved in the 1000 Wells Project, this goal should not be very hard. Estimated costs of average clean water projects indicate that it only takes $1 to supply one person in Africa with clean water for a year.
Members of the project have become increasingly active within the community since the inception of the Davis chapter in 2004.
Volunteers routinely table at the Memorial Union on the Quad and during farmers markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
And beginning on Saturday, the group will embark on its main two weeks of fundraising it calls "two weeks of sacrifice."
Instead of spending money on coffee, juice, milk, soda or other drinks, the organization invites the community make water their only beverage for this span, donating the otherwise spent money to 1000 Wells.
Tao and the rest of the organization hope conscientious students and community members will help the organization reach its goal of raising $15,000 during the calendar year, she said.
"College students don't have much money, but I think it's safe to say that we have a dollar, and that dollar can go pretty far in ensuring these people have clean water," Tao said.
The money goes to partner organizations that build the wells. The costs of the wells can range from $200 for repairing a neglected hand pump to $15,000 to $20,000 for constructing an electric urban pump, Tao said.
With these funds, the organizations embark upon well construction with the goal of educating the community on the importance of the wells as well as how to maintain them.
"This well drilling is very important because, as you're well aware of, Africa is not wet," Fleenor said. "There may not be a substitute to building wells in some regions, so it is a very worthwhile endeavor."
While each project requires a different length of time to complete, the organization hopes that the goal of 1,000 wells will be reached within five to 10 years. Currently, the organization has completed projects in various African countries, including Kenya, Uganda and the Sudan.
Meanwhile, community members and local businesses said they are excited to donate to the cause.
Lori Rumsey, owner of Mother & Baby Source, a local maternity supply store located at 714 Second St. Rumsey donated a stuffed animal to the organization for an upcoming silent-auction to be held at the farmers market.
"I just think it's great," she said. "I am so excited to see young people get active and a program like this is so important."
By CHINTAN DESAI
http://www.californiaaggie.com/article/381
सोमवार, 5 मई 2008
रविवार, 4 मई 2008
Deadly Tap Water Kills close to 80 babies in the Eastern Cape
Murder by Municipal Neglect
Media reports this week that up to 80 babies have died in the Eastern Cape from diarrhoea and complications arising from what would appear to be the contamination of drinking water have led to rearguard caution from the Department of Water Affairs and the affected municipality. They are hesitating to attribute the deaths to the quality of drinking water in the Ukhahlamba municipality. Yet, an official health report submitted to the municipality last week confirmed that water purification works had broken down in October last year.
The Coalition Against Water Privatisation is calling on the municipality to declare the situation an emergency and take immediate action to solve the problem. The provision of bleach, the boiling of all drinking water and the hygiene awareness initiatives are all attributable to the same source – the quality of the water. It is an admission that water quality in Ukhahlamba does not meet the necessary hygiene standards and it is very worrying that the municipality was only moved to action after the deaths of 15 babies was reported to them by the Cloete Joubert Hospital in Barkly East. We cannot allow a situation where our people are forced to drink unsafe water. The municipality must issue a public warning about the danger now before they become responsible for more deaths.
When the Coalition Against Water Privatisation visited the community of Elinge in the Eastern Cape in the same October (2007), the community's drinking water had mixed with sewerage due to a burst pipe and the water was brown. Five community members had by then already died because of the water quality. Fifteen deaths and counting to 80 deaths resulting from diarrhoea and other related complications and the municipality will only now 'start warning the public'. The Coalition supports the call by the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Water Affairs for the Human Rights Commission to investigate the situation in Ukhamhlamba District Municipality. The evidence all points to murder by municipal neglect.
Different community-based organizations under the banner of CAWP in the Eastern Cape are organizing for mass action next month, to address this unacceptable situation and to force the municipality other levels of government (both provincial and national) to ensure that all citizens have clean, accessible water.
By Coalition Against Water Privatisation
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=8752
Media reports this week that up to 80 babies have died in the Eastern Cape from diarrhoea and complications arising from what would appear to be the contamination of drinking water have led to rearguard caution from the Department of Water Affairs and the affected municipality. They are hesitating to attribute the deaths to the quality of drinking water in the Ukhahlamba municipality. Yet, an official health report submitted to the municipality last week confirmed that water purification works had broken down in October last year.
The Coalition Against Water Privatisation is calling on the municipality to declare the situation an emergency and take immediate action to solve the problem. The provision of bleach, the boiling of all drinking water and the hygiene awareness initiatives are all attributable to the same source – the quality of the water. It is an admission that water quality in Ukhahlamba does not meet the necessary hygiene standards and it is very worrying that the municipality was only moved to action after the deaths of 15 babies was reported to them by the Cloete Joubert Hospital in Barkly East. We cannot allow a situation where our people are forced to drink unsafe water. The municipality must issue a public warning about the danger now before they become responsible for more deaths.
When the Coalition Against Water Privatisation visited the community of Elinge in the Eastern Cape in the same October (2007), the community's drinking water had mixed with sewerage due to a burst pipe and the water was brown. Five community members had by then already died because of the water quality. Fifteen deaths and counting to 80 deaths resulting from diarrhoea and other related complications and the municipality will only now 'start warning the public'. The Coalition supports the call by the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Water Affairs for the Human Rights Commission to investigate the situation in Ukhamhlamba District Municipality. The evidence all points to murder by municipal neglect.
Different community-based organizations under the banner of CAWP in the Eastern Cape are organizing for mass action next month, to address this unacceptable situation and to force the municipality other levels of government (both provincial and national) to ensure that all citizens have clean, accessible water.
By Coalition Against Water Privatisation
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=8752
Potable water everywhere
The upcoming decades will hold in them a water crisis- the aquifers are emptying, many reservoirs aren’t re-filling as they used to, and there will be continually less snow runoff in the spring to keep them at their current capacities. The better prepared we are for this, the easier it will be to get through it relatively unscathed as individuals and communities. One of the biggest ways to prepare is to conserve water. How does one do this? Pretty simply, actually. First think of all the things you use water for that aren’t drinking. Ask yourself why you’re using potable (that means safe to drink) water for these purposes. Do you need to? For all the ones where the answer is “no,” think of ways to re-use water for these purposes.
#1- The lawn. You don’t need to use drinking water for your lawn, even if you water it! Set up a rain barrel (pretty much a 55gallon barrel that sits under your gutter). Use that water to water your lawn- and do it in the early morning (like 5-6AM) or at dusk to maximize the amount the grass gets before it evaporates.
Same idea for your houseplants- use a smaller barrel (5gallon bucket, garbage can, etc.) and fill your watering can there instead of at the sink.
#2- The toilet. Think about it this way- you take a couple of gallons of perfectly drinkable water, and you shit in it. Literally. I would argue the person who decided we would universally use potable water to contain our urine has done more damage to the earth than nearly anyone else in history. Ok, maybe I wouldn’t go that far, but pretty close. Remedy? Set up a greywater system in your house. You could reroute your used sink water into the toilet via direct or indirect ways. If you can’t afford that you could use a bucket to retain some of the water from a shower and manually flush by pouring some of it into the bowl. Not the ideal for many of us, but absolutely functional- and you can hide it with the shower curtain when company comes over.
An intermediate remedy for toilet use is to use less potable water in it. This is easily done by filling a half gallon or gallon jug with water and sticking it in the tank of your toilet so that it doesn’t touch any moving mechanisms. Alternately there are products you can buy to sit inside your tank to do the same thing (more effectively, I might add), or if you need to replace your fixture for other reasons- more efficient fixtures.
Get creative, but DON’T USE post-sink water on your plants directly if it’s soapy. The soap, even friendly biodegradable and organic soaps in higher concentrations, can damage plants.
http://cometherevolution.org/2008/04/potable-water-everywhere/
Water Crisis
While the world's population tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold. Within the next fifty years, the world population will increase by another 40 to 50 %. This population growth - coupled with industrialization and urbanization - will result in an increasing demand for water and will have serious consequences on the environment.
People lack drinking water and sanitation
Photo by ADMVB bokidiawe@yahoogroupes.fr
Already there is more waste water generated and dispersed today than at any other time in the history of our planet: more than one out of six people lack access to safe drinking water, namely 1.1 billion people, and more than two out of six lack adequate sanitation, namely 2.6 billion people (Estimation for 2002, by the WHO/UNICEF JMP, 2004). 3900 children die every day from water borne diseases (WHO 2004). One must know that these figures represent only people with very poor conditions. In reality, these figures should be much higher.
Water resources are becoming scarce
Agricultural crisis
Although food security has been significantly increased in the past thirty years, water withdrawals for irrigation represent 66 % of the total withdrawals and up to 90 % in arid regions, the other 34 % being used by domestic households (10 %), industry (20 %), or evaporated from reservoirs (4 %). (Source: Shiklomanov, 1999)
As the per capita use increases due to changes in lifestyle and as population increases as well, the proportion of water for human use is increasing. This, coupled with spatial and temporal variations in water availability, means that the water to produce food for human consumption, industrial processes and all the other uses is becoming scarce.
Environmental crisis
It is all the more critical that increased water use by humans does not only reduce the amount of water available for industrial and agricultural development but has a profound effect on aquatic ecosystems and their dependent species. Environmental balances are disturbed and cannot play their regulating role anymore.
The concept of Water Stress
Water stress results from an imbalance between water use and water resources. The water stress indicator in this map measures the proportion of water withdrawal with respect to total renewable resources. It is a criticality ratio, which implies that water stress depends on the variability of resources. Water stress causes deterioration of fresh water resources in terms of quantity (aquifer over-exploitation, dry rivers, etc.) and quality (eutrophication, organic matter pollution, saline intrusion, etc.) The value of this criticality ratio that indicates high water stress is based on expert judgment and experience (Alcamo and others, 1999). It ranges between 20 % for basins with highly variable runoff and 60 % for temperate zone basins. In this map, we take an overall value of 40 % to indicate high water stress. We see that the situation is heterogeneous over the world.
An increase in tensions
As the resource is becoming scarce, tensions among different users may intensify, both at the national and international level. Over 260 river basins are shared by two or more countries. In the absence of strong institutions and agreements, changes within a basin can lead to transboundary tensions. When major projects proceed without regional collaboration, they can become a point of conflicts, heightening regional instability. The Parana La Plata, the Aral Sea, the Jordan and the Danube may serve as examples. Due to the pressure on the Aral Sea, half of its superficy has disappeared, representing 2/3 of its volume. 36 000 km2 of marin grounds are now recovered by salt.
Towards a way to impove the situation
"There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not about having too little water to satisfy our needs. It is a crisis of managing water so badly that billions of people - and the environment - suffer badly." World Water Vision Report
With the current state of affairs, correcting measures still can be taken to avoid the crisis to be worsening. There is a increasing awareness that our freshwater resources are limited and need to be protected both in terms of quantity and quality. This water challenge affects not only the water community, but also decision-makers and every human being. "Water is everybody's business" was one the the key messages of the 2nd World Water Forum.
Saving water resources
Whatever the use of freshwater (agriculture, industry, domestic use), huge saving of water and improving of water management is possible. Almost everywhere, water is wasted, and as long as people are not facing water scarcity, they believe access to water is an obvious and natural thing. With urbanization and changes in lifestyle, water consumption is bound to increase. However, changes in food habits, for example, may reduce the problem, knowing that growing 1kg of potatoes requires only 100 litres of water, whereas 1 kg of beef requires 13 000 litres.
Improving drinking water supply
Water should be recognized as a great priority. One of the main objectives of the World Water Council is to increase awareness of the water issue. Decision-makers at all levels must be implicated. One of the Millenium Development Goals is to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation. To that aim, several measures should be taken:
guarantee the right to water;
decentralise the responsibility for water;
develop know-how at the local level;
increase and improve financing;
evaluate and monitor water resources.
Improving transboundary cooperation
As far as transboundary conflicts are concerned, regional economic developement and cultural preservation can all be strengthened by states cooperating of water. Instead of a trend towards war, water management can be viewed as a trend towards cooperation and peace. Many initiatives are launched to avoid crises. Institutional commitments like in the Senegal River are created. In 2001, Unesco and Grenn Cross International have joined forces in response to the growing threat of conflicts linked to water. They launched the joint From Potential Conflicts to Co-Operation Potential programme to promote peace in the use of transboundary watercourses by addressing conflicts and fostering co-operation among states and stakeholders.
More about this program: www.gci.ch/en/programs/natural_02.htm
www.unesco.org/water/wwap/pccp
http://worldwatercouncil.org/index.php?id=25
India on brink of water crisis, says climate panel
The per capita water availability in India is projected to decline to about 1,140 cubic metres per year in 2050 from 1,820 cubic metres per year recorded in 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated in a report released recently.
While the figures are not new, the IPCC has put out a warning specifically on the impact on freshwater sources for the world by culling all the scientific data it has earlier assessed. The warning comes at a time when the country is already recording a spate of water wars between different states.
The report points out that another study it had assessed had warned of an even earlier crisis — predicting that India could reach a state of water stress before 2025 when the availability would be below 1,000 cubic metres per capita. The fall in the per capita water supply would be the result of both climate change and increase in population.
With the winter rains predicted to fall, water storage levels in India could dip leading to greater water stress during the lean monsoon period. Combined with the fall in winter rains, the increasing intensity of rain would lead to a higher number of floods during monsoon which too could result in reduced groundwater recharge potential, the authors of the report have warned.
The consequences of global warming which would change the dynamics of the water cycle and could lead to changes even in the irrigated areas. The fluctuation in the irrigated land could be from minus 6% to plus 5% in the case of India by 2020.
The consequences of increased water scarcity as well as increased irrigation demand could lead to rather odd spin offs — uncontrolled water usage
By Nitin Sethi
The Economic Times
While the figures are not new, the IPCC has put out a warning specifically on the impact on freshwater sources for the world by culling all the scientific data it has earlier assessed. The warning comes at a time when the country is already recording a spate of water wars between different states.
The report points out that another study it had assessed had warned of an even earlier crisis — predicting that India could reach a state of water stress before 2025 when the availability would be below 1,000 cubic metres per capita. The fall in the per capita water supply would be the result of both climate change and increase in population.
With the winter rains predicted to fall, water storage levels in India could dip leading to greater water stress during the lean monsoon period. Combined with the fall in winter rains, the increasing intensity of rain would lead to a higher number of floods during monsoon which too could result in reduced groundwater recharge potential, the authors of the report have warned.
The consequences of global warming which would change the dynamics of the water cycle and could lead to changes even in the irrigated areas. The fluctuation in the irrigated land could be from minus 6% to plus 5% in the case of India by 2020.
The consequences of increased water scarcity as well as increased irrigation demand could lead to rather odd spin offs — uncontrolled water usage
By Nitin Sethi
The Economic Times
शुक्रवार, 2 मई 2008
"The next step is to build high dams"
In contrast to his flamboyant predecessor Laloo Yadav, BIhar chief minister Nitish Kumar has carved an image of being focused on governance. Walking our of his Patna secretariat office after a series of meetings late on Tuesday night, Kumar spoke to Prashant Jha about the Maoist, Madhes and monsoon.
Nepali Times: Are you worried about the Maoist win in Nepal?
Nitish Kumar: Why sould I be worried? We welcome the election results and look forward to working with the new government. The Maoists have come the democratic way and are a legitimate party. Their links with Naxals have never been proven. It is mere speculation and e hae no reason to believe they will support sujch activities on our side. This is the verdict of the people and we honour it.
Madhesi leaders met you recently to ask for support for their struggle. What do you think about the Madhes issue?
They did ncome and speak to me and I listened to their views. But this is a problem that has to be solved within Nepal. There is constituent assembly now. Madhesis have representation within the house. They, like others in Nepal, have legitimate demands which can be addressed in the new framework. This is not a mandate for one-party rule anyway. From what I understand, the message from the people of Nepal is that all their political leaders should work together. Everyone, including the Madhesis, must be taken together in this process.
Tarai armed militants are reported to be based in BIhar.
Well people of the tarai come and go. This is an open border. We share a roti-beti relationship. Our lives are intertwined and our problems are the same. We have always been ready to help nepal and during elections, we tightened up our security to ensure things remained calm.
What are the key areas in which you would like to co-operatin with the new government in Nepal?
Water management is of course a priority. Can you imagine what a relief it would be for us in Bihar if the annual floods do not devastate lives? So much of \my work goes to waste every monsoon. The roads get destroyed, we have to spend at least Rs 3,000 crore in relief and rehabilitation. This wiol help Nepal also, by stopping floods in your tarai and enabling the development of hydropower. What we have signed are a few run-of-the-river projects. The next step must be to build high dams.
-Nepali Times weekly,
Nepali Times: Are you worried about the Maoist win in Nepal?
Nitish Kumar: Why sould I be worried? We welcome the election results and look forward to working with the new government. The Maoists have come the democratic way and are a legitimate party. Their links with Naxals have never been proven. It is mere speculation and e hae no reason to believe they will support sujch activities on our side. This is the verdict of the people and we honour it.
Madhesi leaders met you recently to ask for support for their struggle. What do you think about the Madhes issue?
They did ncome and speak to me and I listened to their views. But this is a problem that has to be solved within Nepal. There is constituent assembly now. Madhesis have representation within the house. They, like others in Nepal, have legitimate demands which can be addressed in the new framework. This is not a mandate for one-party rule anyway. From what I understand, the message from the people of Nepal is that all their political leaders should work together. Everyone, including the Madhesis, must be taken together in this process.
Tarai armed militants are reported to be based in BIhar.
Well people of the tarai come and go. This is an open border. We share a roti-beti relationship. Our lives are intertwined and our problems are the same. We have always been ready to help nepal and during elections, we tightened up our security to ensure things remained calm.
What are the key areas in which you would like to co-operatin with the new government in Nepal?
Water management is of course a priority. Can you imagine what a relief it would be for us in Bihar if the annual floods do not devastate lives? So much of \my work goes to waste every monsoon. The roads get destroyed, we have to spend at least Rs 3,000 crore in relief and rehabilitation. This wiol help Nepal also, by stopping floods in your tarai and enabling the development of hydropower. What we have signed are a few run-of-the-river projects. The next step must be to build high dams.
-Nepali Times weekly,
People to hydropower
Initially caught off-guard by Nepal's constituent assembly election results, New Delhi is hoping to do business with a Maoist-led government especially on water resources.
Publicly, the Indians say they are happy with whatever result, but there seems to nervousness about Maoist policy on strategic issues like water, power and geopolitics.
Some people seem to think we were caught by surprise with the result, says Shyam Saran, former ambassador to kathmandu and ex-Foreign Secretary, but Indian doesn't play favorites in Nepal. We can do business with any political dispensation.
but past Maoist pronouncements, including an interview y Pushpa Kamal Dahal in 2000 in which he boasted the Maoists would fight the Indian Army if necessary and frequent references to Indian expansionism in Dahal's campaign speeches haven't helped allay Indian unease.
When the Maoists won the election, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs nearly cancelled a previously-scheduled conference here in the Bihar capital to discuss Indo-Nepal relations. Even though some high-profile guests and speakers dropped out, the meeting went ahead as scheduled on 26-27 April.
Saran and Indian State Minister for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh stayed for the whole two-day conference attended by 40 invited participants from Nepal. The Nepali delegation was headed by Minister fro Physical Planning g and Infrastructure, Hisila Yami, and also included Maoist leader CP Gajurel.
Bihar is suffering a crippling power shortage this summer, and the Ganges is almost dry. But in a few months, as every year, most of the state will be inundated by floods. It wasn't surprising, therefore, that a recurrent theme at the conference was water and power.
In Bihar we only think of Nepal during the monsoon floods, quipped Nitish Kumar, Bihar's chief minister in his keynote address. "We have common problem of poverty and we can tackle that by mutual cooperation on the Kosi High dam." How to deal with displacement of people in Nepal the Kosi's massive silt load was not broached.
Yami didn't want to be dragged into specifics, but responded: People on both sides of the border would benefit from transparency and accountability in political and economic commitments…particularly in the areas of flood control."
Kumar saw storing monsoon runoff on Himalayan high dams as mutually beneficial. BUt given perceptions of unfair treatment on Kosi and Gandaki in the 1960s, India may need to do more build trust among Nepalis about river sharing. It didn't help that Indian officials kept urging Nepal to follow the "Bhutan model".
In the past six month two Indian private companies have signed MoUs for the 300MW Upper Karnali and 400 MW Arun III. Adding West Seta and Budhi Gandaki, the total power agreement with India would go up to nearly 1800MW.
Minister Ramesh was optimistic that all this would lead to bigger and better things. "We are no longer talking about a pie in the sky," he said, "we have made progress and a final push on joint projects by the new government is all that is required."
Ramesh tried to assure Nepali visitors that India was no "coveting and salivating" over Himalayan rivers, but would like to see mutual cooperation also benefit Nepal with power, irrigation and balance of payments. "One major project exporting power to India would wipe out Nepal's trade deficit with India," he said.
Saran echoed the view. "Nepal has to start seeing India not as a threat but as an opportunity, you are next door to a country of o0ne billion growing at eight percent with which you have an open border, "he said, "Nepal is not India-locked, it is India-open."
Participants said India-Nepal economic cooperation has suffered because Nepali nationalism is often defined by anti-Indianism. Former JNU professor S D Muni advised the Maoists not to fall into that trap.
"The new rulers of Nepal don't have to fall back on that nationalist agenda and India should't try to play pawns and bishops in Nepal."
Seven years ago when India's Power Trading Corporation's Tantra Naryan Thakur came to Nepal to explore electricity import prospects, he remembers Nepali officials assuring him that Nepal could export 150 MW by 2007. "Today, Nepal is buying power from India," Thakur told the conference.
But he said India's demand for power would grow to 2000,000 MW by 2018. If Nepal could fast track projects to generate juist 10,000MW in ten years, consume 2,000 MW itself and export the rest to India it could earn $2.7 billion a year, Thakur said.
Foreign investors in Nepal, however, say they need to feel that they are not wasting their time. Dabur Inda is one investor which has stuck it out in Nepal through the conflit years. It's CEO, Udayan Ganguly said: "Nepal needs to create the right atmosphere for investors by resolving labour issues, violence and insecurity. Unless swift action is taken, the few investors that remain may decide it's not worth it."
Kunda Dixit in Patna
-Nepali Times weekly
Publicly, the Indians say they are happy with whatever result, but there seems to nervousness about Maoist policy on strategic issues like water, power and geopolitics.
Some people seem to think we were caught by surprise with the result, says Shyam Saran, former ambassador to kathmandu and ex-Foreign Secretary, but Indian doesn't play favorites in Nepal. We can do business with any political dispensation.
but past Maoist pronouncements, including an interview y Pushpa Kamal Dahal in 2000 in which he boasted the Maoists would fight the Indian Army if necessary and frequent references to Indian expansionism in Dahal's campaign speeches haven't helped allay Indian unease.
When the Maoists won the election, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs nearly cancelled a previously-scheduled conference here in the Bihar capital to discuss Indo-Nepal relations. Even though some high-profile guests and speakers dropped out, the meeting went ahead as scheduled on 26-27 April.
Saran and Indian State Minister for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh stayed for the whole two-day conference attended by 40 invited participants from Nepal. The Nepali delegation was headed by Minister fro Physical Planning g and Infrastructure, Hisila Yami, and also included Maoist leader CP Gajurel.
Bihar is suffering a crippling power shortage this summer, and the Ganges is almost dry. But in a few months, as every year, most of the state will be inundated by floods. It wasn't surprising, therefore, that a recurrent theme at the conference was water and power.
In Bihar we only think of Nepal during the monsoon floods, quipped Nitish Kumar, Bihar's chief minister in his keynote address. "We have common problem of poverty and we can tackle that by mutual cooperation on the Kosi High dam." How to deal with displacement of people in Nepal the Kosi's massive silt load was not broached.
Yami didn't want to be dragged into specifics, but responded: People on both sides of the border would benefit from transparency and accountability in political and economic commitments…particularly in the areas of flood control."
Kumar saw storing monsoon runoff on Himalayan high dams as mutually beneficial. BUt given perceptions of unfair treatment on Kosi and Gandaki in the 1960s, India may need to do more build trust among Nepalis about river sharing. It didn't help that Indian officials kept urging Nepal to follow the "Bhutan model".
In the past six month two Indian private companies have signed MoUs for the 300MW Upper Karnali and 400 MW Arun III. Adding West Seta and Budhi Gandaki, the total power agreement with India would go up to nearly 1800MW.
Minister Ramesh was optimistic that all this would lead to bigger and better things. "We are no longer talking about a pie in the sky," he said, "we have made progress and a final push on joint projects by the new government is all that is required."
Ramesh tried to assure Nepali visitors that India was no "coveting and salivating" over Himalayan rivers, but would like to see mutual cooperation also benefit Nepal with power, irrigation and balance of payments. "One major project exporting power to India would wipe out Nepal's trade deficit with India," he said.
Saran echoed the view. "Nepal has to start seeing India not as a threat but as an opportunity, you are next door to a country of o0ne billion growing at eight percent with which you have an open border, "he said, "Nepal is not India-locked, it is India-open."
Participants said India-Nepal economic cooperation has suffered because Nepali nationalism is often defined by anti-Indianism. Former JNU professor S D Muni advised the Maoists not to fall into that trap.
"The new rulers of Nepal don't have to fall back on that nationalist agenda and India should't try to play pawns and bishops in Nepal."
Seven years ago when India's Power Trading Corporation's Tantra Naryan Thakur came to Nepal to explore electricity import prospects, he remembers Nepali officials assuring him that Nepal could export 150 MW by 2007. "Today, Nepal is buying power from India," Thakur told the conference.
But he said India's demand for power would grow to 2000,000 MW by 2018. If Nepal could fast track projects to generate juist 10,000MW in ten years, consume 2,000 MW itself and export the rest to India it could earn $2.7 billion a year, Thakur said.
Foreign investors in Nepal, however, say they need to feel that they are not wasting their time. Dabur Inda is one investor which has stuck it out in Nepal through the conflit years. It's CEO, Udayan Ganguly said: "Nepal needs to create the right atmosphere for investors by resolving labour issues, violence and insecurity. Unless swift action is taken, the few investors that remain may decide it's not worth it."
Kunda Dixit in Patna
-Nepali Times weekly
सदस्यता लें
संदेश (Atom)