Upreti, Trilochan, International Watercourses Law and Its Application ...

208 / International Watercourses Law and Its Application in South Asia Prospects and Problems of Nepalese Water Resources / 209trade and industry. 85 Nepal exchanged land to facilitate theSarada Project in 1920 and provided land to facilitate theTanakpur project; now it is India’s turn to provide this facilityon a reciprocal basis. Nepal’s view is that, instead of thepoliticisation of these issues, they should be tackled as tools ofeconomic development. Even after the ratification of theMahakali Treaty, the Nepalese parliament issued a strictureagainst the spirit and letter of the treaty which tied the hands ofthe government, preventing them from finalising the DPR andimplementing the treaty pursuant to the treaty provisions. 86Moreover, India has flatly refused to acknowledge thesestrictures and is holding to the treaty arrangement. 874. 6 Negotiations on Water Resources ProjectsIn order to grasp the unique opportunities afforded by Nepalesewater resources, Nepal alone does not have the capacityeconomically, technologically, or in skilled manpower, noreven the consumer demand to absorb such huge benefits. Onthe other hand, neither is India alone able to utilise thoseresources without meaningful co-operation from Nepal,because Nepal offers an ideal location for project construction,namely the Siwalik gorges of the Himalayan foothills; this siteadditionally enables construction of short transmission lines toan area where the need for hydropower is acute. Such a uniquelocation offers tremendous benefits in mitigating flood hazards,85 Ibid. p. 136: an alternative is through a 16 kilometre long tunnel linkoriginating from the eastern part of Nepal, passing through India at adepth of 300 metres and coming out at the western border ofBangladesh; also see G. D. Shrestha, "Himalayan Water: Need forPositive Indo-Nepal Co-operation" (1994) in 4 Water Nepal, p. 272.86 Stricture adopted by the parliament subsequent to ratification containsfive conditions of which the second directs the government not torecognise consumptive use of the second lower Sarada Project, and thethird seeks to resolve the status of Mahakali River and also to resolvethe longstanding border issue in the Kalapani area. These instructionswere provided on 2054/4/12 Nepalese calendar date.87 Supra note 48, pp. 53-65.the augmentation of water flows in the dry season, hydropower,irrigation and navigation facilities. 88 The water talks betweenthe two countries have always been dominated by their politicalrelationship. Whenever the general atmosphere of politicalrelations between the two countries has not been encouraging,the water talks have not yielded any result, but ratherintensified bitterness instead of enhancing progress. On the onehand, Nepal is very suspicious of India’s attitude, on the basisof past experience concerning Kosi and Gandak; on the otherhand, India is alleging that Nepal is not really interested indeveloping those vast resources for the mutual benefits of thepeople of both countries. 89There are several projects which have been identified for betterco-operation; of these, the Karnali Multipurpose Project (KMP)is one of the biggest and most attractive, at 10,800 MW. Thetwo countries have been discussing this project for the last fortyyears and a number of feasibility studies and surveys have beenconducted. Apart from power generation, this project isenvisaged to control flood and sedimentation problems in theKarnali river basin. From these studies, the project cost was $4.4 billion at 1989 prices. 904. 7 Associated Multi-Disciplinary ComplicationsThere are interconnected issues which need to be resolvedbefore initiating a water resource project. The completion ofany such project takes much time and investment, and severalother issues must be dealt with simultaneously, includingenvironmental aspects, seismicity, socio-economics,88 Supra note 13, p. 256.89 Supra note 21, p. 280, C. K. Sharma, an eminent scholar, has pointedout that "now the situation (after the Kosi and the Gandak agreements)is such that no politician or bureaucrat will ever dare to stake his careerand fame on dealing with the sensitive issue of water resources, whichinvolves the question of sharing between and among riparian states.”90 Supra note 22, p. 344.