A delegation comprising members of Karnali River Basin Conservation Society met with prime minister today morning, to draw his attention towards the proposal for wrong implementation of Upper Karnali project as a run of the river project (900 MW), which should be developed as a storage project (4,180 MW) not only to generate peak energy but also to provide fresh water for drinking and sanitation, irrigation and even navigation.
The delegation drew his attention towards MoU signed with GMR, which is detrimental to Nepal’s interest. However, he took things negatively and jumped to the conclusion that people are trying to obstruct development work. He alos referred to cancellation of Arun 3 by World Bank in 1995 and ascribed present load shedding to the cancellation. He wasn’t aware of the fact due to cancellation of Arun 3, Nepal has succeeded to add 346 MW to the system instead of just 201 MW. He was basically parroting the statements made by the likes of Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, present finance minister.
It was rather saddening. He seemed to be aware of need of electricity for industrialization, but he didn’t see any wrong in exporting power, which would deprive Nepal of the much-needed power.
The silver lining was his admission that he has not studied the relevant documents.
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