Oped»
Murky waters
JUN 03 -
In all probabilities, it will be yet another water issue that will be swept under the carpet, courtesy survivalist politicians.
But, there is one thing it has laid bare for sure: further deepened mistrust between Nepal and India when it comes to water resources.
The latest controversy over the diversion of some of the Koshi waters by the Indian government could not have come at both better and worse times.
Better because the channelling of the waters westwards comes just before monsoon.
Which means, it could lessen havoc the meandering river could wreak in its eastern part, mainly in Indian state of Bihar as it happened two years ago?
What then happens to the Nepalese in villages like Gobargada now said to be surrounded by the river after the diversion remains to be seen.
The timing of the pilot channelling could not have been worse either because it was done at an impressive speed just when Kathmandu was politically deadlocked.
It all happened just when all eyes were on Maoists’ pressure tactics in the streets of the capital and the resistant manoeuvrings of the major ruling coalition partners.
And when this newspaper’s sister publication Kantipur daily broke the news, what followed was the usual business - blame game.
Irrigation Ministry officials say they had no idea what was happening and the westward channelling of some of Koshi waters was not something bilaterally agreed.
“That was why we wrote to the Indian embassy expressing our concern,” Irrigation Minister Bal Krishna Khand told the BBC Nepali service.
But Indian embassy officials in Kathmandu argue that the pilot channel was dug in total consultation with Nepal.
“It was an inter-governmental decision made by Koshi high level committee, and it was later jointly discussed by the India-Nepal joint standing technical committee on water resources in March 2010,” Indian embassy spokesperson Apoorva Shrivasastava said in the same BBC report.
My follow-up question to that in the report was: Was there any written agreement Nepal had signed allowing the Indian side to carry out such works on the Nepal-side of Koshi?
Shrivastava’s reply was, “Yes, the Koshi high level committee inspected the project site in October 2009 and recommended the channel to be made and then the secretary level India-Nepal joint meeting on water resources was held in November 2009.
“So, all these reports have the mention of this (pilot channelling of Koshi) and it was signed by Indian and Nepali authorities both.”
When this was put to Minister Khand, this is what he said: If they (the Indian embassy) say the same thing to us what they have told you, we will sit for discussion with the documents they have and the technical report we have prepared and then we will take a decision.
But Khand’s subordinates at the Irrigation Ministry argue that none of the documents allow India to divert or channelize Koshi waters within Nepalese territory.
“Yes, in one those joint meetings, we did appreciate that such a diversion could help ease things, but this was only about the Koshi waters in the Indian territory,” said the Deputy Director General at the Irrigation Department, Shiva Kumar Sharma.
“But there was no agreement for such works in the Nepalese side of the Koshi river, so whatever has been done to divert some waters westward was without our permission.
“Since this a very sensitive river, if something wrong happens because of this pilot channel, the bilateral relation of Nepal and India will be in danger.”
Intriguingly, the Nepalese side initially chose to shut its eyes over the works of pilot channelling by India until the news broke out.
Worse yet, it has emerged that Minister Khand and his technocrats have not properly sat together and discussed things for coherence even after this storm.
While his officials argue that there had been no agreement to allow India to do anything as such in the Nepalese side of the Koshi, the minister has a bit different version.
He says the agreement did not permit the Indian government to do anything southward of the Koshi barrage whereas it allowed them to do certain things in the northern part of the barrage.
Khand would definitely have had a proper briefing from his men if only Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal - who has met Indian ambassador Rakesh Sood a number of times recently - wanted proper updates from his irrigation minister.
In this political climate, who has time to raise water issues anyway?
Right, but it is in these very political climates, waters could get tested.
The result of the test: The decades old mistrust between the two sides has further deepened.
This following the controversy surrounding the diversion of a small quantity of Koshi waters.
And they talk tall about building together what could be the world’s tallest dam on the same river.
(The writer is a BBC journalist based in London)
navin.khadka@gmail.com
Posted on: 2010-06-04 08:46
Headlines
Advertisements
