Saturday, October 2, 2010

Nomination for "foot in mouth award" - UCPNM stoppage of hydropower projects

The ASS is nominated for "foot in mouth award" her/his asinine comments last week (NT # 521) about "stoppage of 14 hydroelectric projects that together would generate 5,000 MW" for effectively implying that the load shedding problem in Nepal will not be mitigated due to the stoppage. As most of these projects are dedicated for export, Nepal's load shedding problem will be impervious to these being built or not. Meaning load shedding problem in Nepal will not be solved even if these are to be built. These are being planned to be built to mitigate the load shedding problem across the border; in contravention of Nepal's constitution. Moreover, some are being undertaken to arrange water for irrigation in India during the dry season by impounding rain water in the reservoirs to be built which will inundate Nepal's fertile land, forest, tourist sites, existing infrastructure, etc. and also displace local populace. This arrangement too breaches constitutional provision and also ignores the precedents set by treaties between Canada and USA as well as Lesotho and South Africa.

Ratna Sansar Shrestha
Published in NT 522 if October 1-6, 2010

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