SURKHET : The Third National River Summit 2019 kicked off in Surkhet on Thursday with an objective to conserve the Karnali River. Karnali Province Chief Minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi inaugurated the conference.
Chief Minister Shahi said a ‘Storage Project’ can be built in order to meet the water necessities such as irrigation and drinking water. “So far nothing substantial has been reaped from Karnali River,” he said. “Still many developed countries have been striving to collect water. Our government should take into account the conclusions drawn by experts.”
Shahi said it was time to conduct feasibility study for development as the criticism and protests would not make the development possible. “We have to change our identity as a poor. For that, we need to identify the possibility of economic prosperity. Rivers are linked with history and civilization. Thus, it is important to conserve and promote the rivers,” he said.
Former Minister for Water Resources Minister Deepak Raj Gyawali, who is also a water expert, said the river management—caught between exploitation and conservation—has become challenging. “We are moving in the wrong direction of development. There was no development and civilization in the past. Terminologies such as civilization, development and prosperity have emerged recently,” he said. “However, some people in the government think anything is development. These are wrong development. We are caught in the triangle of exploitation, conservation and management.”
Gyawali said the water level in Kanchanpur area is depleting due to exploitation of water in Indian side. “We were under the illusion that Nepal’s water resource is electricity. We need water for irrigation. It is not certain whether the water is for electricity or irrigation,” he said. Of the 111 rivers where India has plans to develop waterways Karnali River is ranked 37.
Arguing that Upper Karnali River project is not in the interests of Nepal, he said, “This project is not for Nepal but for export. This is an extreme example of wrong-development. We will be deprived of huge benefit and it will affect Rani Jamara irrigation project.”
Vice- Chair of Karnali Province Planning Prof. Punya Prasad Regmi said the development model for Karnali should be different. “Now, we are facing a dilemma. But there will be a little bit of conflict with environment while advancing development projects,” he said. “We have different language, culture, history and religion here. We are also rich in land and water. Therefore, it is necessary for study and research.”
He underscored the need for intense discussion for proper utilization of natural resources. He expressed his commitment to move ahead by understanding the right importance of the river and the concept paper for Karnali Province Development is being prepared.
Nepali Congress (NC) leader Jeevan Bahadur Shahi said there should be conscientious development. “We tend to ruin the good work in Nepal. We are bent on destroying the traditional and local wisdom. Despite having rich natural heritage, we have poor mentality,” he said. “There should be balanced development.”
Karnali Province Assembly Speaker Raj Bahadur Shahi said there should be intellectual debate on the potentialities of Karnali River. “River should be allowed to take the natural course. And the local level should start the debate on the need to consume the river naturally,” he said. “Both provincial and federal governments have imagined utilizing Karnali as prosperous resource. We might have to adopt another concept for to achieve that.”
Speaker Shahi admitted that there are challenges to maintain the rivers to their natural status “We can achieve objective of the conference if we could make the people understand that prosperity is possible even by utilizing the rivers. It is possible to maintain environment through tourism. We are hopeful that there would be extensive discussion on how maximum benefit could be reaped.”
Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment Nanda Singh Budha said the Karnali River and its surroundings should be developed as tourism and adventure tourism region. The Summit is organized by Nepal River Conservation Trust and Karnali Province Government. The support and funding to the Summit was provided by USAID Paani Program. The co-organizers of the event were Pancha Deval Binayak Municipality, Aacham and Aathbish Municipality, Dailekh. NEFEJ, Youth Alliance for Environment, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu University.
According to USAID Paani Program Chief of party Nilu Basnyat, the conference will hold discussions on the knowledge, exchange ideas and research. Fifteen researchers from countries including India, Bangladesh, US and Russia have converged here. Experts will present their programs launched in river, water and conservation sector. The other activities of the conference will be held on the bank of Karnali River.
At the program, a 30-minute long documentary on Karnali River (From Kailash Parbat to Ganga) was screened. The documentary chronicles 44-day long the journey from Mt Kailash to Ganga. Around 200 people have gathered in the third river summit. Experts, river conservationists, government officials, media persons, organizations working in conservation sector representatives from various countries participated in the program. The first and second river summit was held in Sunkoshi and Trishuli rivers respectively. Animals such as snow leopard, Royal Bengal tiger, dolphin and elephants are found in Karnali River basin.
The Karnali River that originates from Kailash flows through Humla, Ghaghara merges into Ganga. A population of 1.4 billion is based on Karnali river basin. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Karnali Province is the capital of Karnali River.
