Posted on January, 05 2009

Salleri, Nepal –The first field piloting of National Water Plan (NWP) was initiated with an official inauguration of Dudhkoshi Sub Basin Project Office by Mr. Kishor Thapa, Secretary of Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS), the government apex body for water resources and WWF Country Representative to Nepal, Mr. Anil Manandhar on 5 January 2009 in Salleri of eastern Nepal.

With WWF's support, the Koshi River basin, a transboundary river basin starting from Tibet and Nepal, which flows through India and Bangladesh and feeds the Bay of Bengal, was selected by the Government of Nepal to pilot the integrated approach of basin management as prioritized by the NWP.

Inaugurating the project office, Mr. Manandhar said, "The main objective of this project is to make the optimum use of Koshi River basin’s water and related resources to promote socio-economic development for the benefit of people in the basin, while maintaining the ecological balance."

The pilot field activities were initiated in Dudh Koshi sub basin, one of the seven sub basins of Koshi River basin in Nepal. The Dudh Koshi Sub Basin Project Office will work with the local communities through Integrated Resource Management Committees (IRMC), which will be formed and institutionalized with the project's support. The IRMC is the catchment level management body under the river basin management governance structure recommended by the NWP.


END NOTES:

• All the rivers of Nepal contribute to more than 45 per cent of the total flow of the River Ganga; nearly 70 per cent in dry season and 87 per cent in the three critical non-monsoon months (March to May). The Koshi River, one of the largest tributaries of River Ganga, contributes almost 10 per cent of the average discharge of the basin.
• The Koshi River, along with its tributaries, drains a total area of 69,300 km2 up to its confluence with the Ganga in India (29,400 km2 in China, 30,700 km2 in Nepal and 9,200 km2 in India).