1. Strategic Environmental Assessment of National Water Plan, NepalBY
Ram B. Khadka

2. Nepal: An Introduction
Location:
Nepal is the Himalayan Kingdom known as the Land of the Mt. Everest and the birthplace of Lord Buddha. The country is situated in South Asia, bordered on the north by China and on the south, west and east by India.

3. Nepal: General Information
Topographical Features:
Nepal is a mountainous country with the Himalayan belt in the north, the hilly region and fertile valleys in the Middle and the narrow strip of plain in the South, all running parallel to each other from East to West.
Climate:
The country has diverse climatic conditions. It is generally cold in the mountainous region, mild weather in the hills, and warm in the plains.
Rainfall: 1,500 -2,500mm (average)
Capital: Kathmandu, a historical city with rich cultural heritage is Nepal's capital with 1.5 million population.

5. Background information
6000 Rivers, mostly
trans-Himalayan and
snow –fed
Drain 194,471 km2
225 billion cubic liters of water is available
Annually
15 billion cubic liters of water have been
utilized so far

6. Background information
72 percent of population have an access to water supply
25 percent have access to sanitation facility
0.76 million ha of agriculture land have been irrigated
Hydropower development potential is 83000MW, at present only 619MW has been generated.

7. Background information
Water is one of the major natural resources for economic development
Inspite of many efforts made in the past water resource development is slow,
In order to make water resource development comprehensive, systematized and accelerate the process of development, Government of Nepal issued Water Resource Strategy in 2002.

8. Water Resource Strategy (WRS) for Nepal
WRS contains following 10 action programs:
management water-Induced disaster
management of watershed and aquatic ecosystem
domestic water supply and sanitation
Irrigation facilities for agriculture
development of hydropower for electricity
water-based cultural, recreational, and eco-tourism activities
amendment the existing water resource policy and legal framework
water-related information systems
development of regional and bi-lateral co-operation and
revision and modification of exsisting institutional procedural
mechanism.

9. National Water Plan for Nepal (NWP)
In order to operationalize WRS of Nepal, a
National Water Plan was developed and
endorsed by the government (2005).The
following are the action programs contained
in the NWP
The implementation of NWP activities is to
take place within the time frame of 5,15 and
20 years.

10. National Water Plan (NWP) Contd.
Management of major types of water induced disasters
Improvement of water Quality and watersheds
Provide safe drinking water to 100% people of Nepal
Provide irrigation facilities to 100% arable land

11. National Water Plan (NWP) Contd.
Develop 4000MW of hydropower
Provide water to 100% industry, navigation and tourism
Enhance inland fisheries and increase the production to MT per year
Establish hydrometric stations to 370 at strategic places and disseminate the information

12. National Water Plan (NWP) Contd
Establish regional cooperation for water sharing fully
Revise and refine the existing legal framework, develop policies, guidelines, norms and standards.
Restructure administrative institutions revise and improve administrative mechanism. Or

13. Application of SEA in NWP
No legal requirement for SEA in Nepal
Water Energy Commission of Nepal decided to apply SEA in NWP voluntarily to make plan environmentally sound and sustainable.
SEA was carried out based on secondary sources of Information and an extensive public consultation with some field verification.
Followed screening, scoping, baseline information collection, impact identification and prediction, mitigation measures and environmental management plan.

14. Application of SEA in NWP
Stakeholders consultation at different stages
Use of internationally recognized checklist, interaction matrix, and Impact summary matrix (Saddler and Verheem, 1996).
Issues identified in scoping were classified into i physical, ii biological iii socio-economic/cultural and iv legal and institutional components.

15. Issue Analysis and Prediction
NWP was examined whether,
Issues were addressed in NWP
Assessment of the status of issues included
Mitigation measures are provided
Physical Issues
Downstream release of water, submerging
of large amount of farmland, water logging, extraction of ground water-lowering of water level
Formation of new flood plain
Water pollution due to chemical fertilizer and pesticides
No Measures are mentioned in policies, guidelines and no standards

16. Issue Analysis and Prediction
Biological Issues: effect on;
Forest, flora, animals both aquatic and
Terrestrials
Protected areas, wild animal habitat,
Destruction of biodiversity
Effect on fish and fisheries
Production of Green House Gas (GHG)
Downstream Pollution

17. Issue Analysis and Prediction
Socio-Economic/Cultural Issue
employment opportunity,
local market development,
reduced drudgery in women and children,
skilled manpower development,
gender,
enhancement of local organizations.
land acquisition,
displacement, and resettlement,
cultural malpractices, and pressure on social services

18. Issue Analysis and Prediction
Legal and Institutional Component
Policy conflict
No coordination
Improper legal framework ineffective in
Implementation
No water quality standards, no code of conduct,
No waste water treatment commitment
The private sector projects are operating well
The government sector projects do not function
properly because of the financial limitation imposed
by finance act
No comprehensive legislation

19. Mitigation Measures /Alternative Options
Mitigation measures at strategic level can
involves:
rewriting the strategic actions to minimize negative environmental effects and enhance the beneficial one,
establishing management guidelines for implementing strategic action,
shifting responsibility to lower tier of strategic action or in project level, and
no action alternative.

20. Mitigation Measures /Alternative Options
Physical Components
Maintaining water flow down stream : release of 10% dry period flow plus existing water requirement in downstream.
Downstream Water Pollution and
Groundwater Quality ; Standards and policy guidelines
Use of Inundated Upland Fields and Forest
Cloud Burst, Glacial Lake Outburst Flood,
and Landslide Dam Flood; Minimization
Erosions, Landslides, and Sedimentation: minimization
Lowering of Ground Water ;Policy guidelines
Water logging and Soil Modification; Policy guidelines

21. Mitigation Measures /Alternative Options
Forest Vegetation and Wild animals;
Forest and Vegetation; Policy guidelines and standards
Wildlife and Biodiversity;
Protected Areas;
Aquatic flora and Fauna

22. Mitigation Measures /Alternative Options
Socio-economic and Cultural Issues ;Mostly to be addressed by issuing of policy guidelines, directives, standards, and implementation guidelines
Employment Opportunities;
Economic Activities
Local Market Development Market
Skilled manpower development;
Reduce Drudgery to Women and Children
Cultural Practice;
Land Acquisition, Displacement and Resettlement
Pressure on Social Service
Gender Issue

23. Mitigation Measures /Alternative Options
Legal and Institutional Component
Comprehensive National Water Resource Policy
Action Plans for Water resource and Environment Laws
Legal Regime for Ground Water Management
Pollution Standards for Enforcement of Environment
Protection Act
Strengthen Community-Based Water User Organizations

24. Environmental Management Plan (EMP)
rewriting, strategy and Action Plans, development of policy guidelines for implementation of directives to project-level implementations are the key strategic mitigation prescriptions.
EMP of National Water Plan should examine whether the issues are addressed and the corresponding gaps are identified.
In SEA of NWP strategic EMP parameters on physical, biological, socio-economic, and cultural components of the environment have been identified and recommendation should be made to apply in project level activities
The second part in EMP is to monitor the implementation of mitigation prescriptions. Monitoring such as (i) baseline (ii) impact and (iii) compliance monitoring are applicable to strategic actions.

25. Conclusion and Recommendation
Analysis has been carried out for the consideration of in the upper
tier of decision-making.
The key environmental issues identified were:
downstream release of water and water use right,
inundation,
downstream and ground water pollution,
issues on the loss of forests and wildlife, both aquatic and terrestrial,
issues on boom and bust cycle related to workforce,
land acquisition displacement and resettlement, and
ineffective environmental laws, regulations, and standards and institutions related to water resource development.
Issues on human resource development and employment opportunity.

26. Conclusion and Recommendation
Minimization of the adverse issues and enhancement of
beneficial issues of NWP implementation at the Strategic
Level are:
revising and modification of existing system of legal
framework,
revising and writing of water resource development policies, Plans and programs, and
Issuing policy guidelines, standards, norms, reforming existing institutional and procedural aspects, etc.
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