High-level Indian team arrives

Kantipur Report

KATHMANDU, Nov 5 - A high-level technical team from India arrived here on Tuesday to study the devastation caused by flooding in the Saptakoshi and work out a long-term solution to the problem. The river breached its embankment at West Kushaha in Sunsari district on Aug. 18, ...

The Indian team led by Chairman of the Central Water Commission of India A.K. Bajaj will tour the Koshi-ravaged areas for two days starting Wednesday.

Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources Shital Babu Regmee, Director General (DG) of the Department of Irrigation (DoI) Madhusudan Poudel, Deputy DG at DoI Anil Pokharel, Deputy DG of the Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention Khom Raj Dahal and Regional Director of the DoI in Biratnagar Kamal Regmi, among other officials, will also visit the Koshi-ravaged sites together with the Indian team, according to Poudel.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood will accompany the visiting team.

The Indian team is to seek out a durable solution to the problem of Koshi embankment protection, according to the agreement reached at the Joint Committee on Water Resources (JCWR) talks that concluded in Kathmandu on Oct. 1.

The bilateral talks headed by the Water Resources Secretaries of the two countries had recommended that a high level technical team from India visit Nepal for a follow-up discussion in the first week of November to find a long-term solution to Koshi flooding.

During the bilateral talks, the two sides said they expected the flow of water from the breached embankment to stop by the middle of December and the afflux bund, the raised embankment built upstream of the barrage, to be restored by the end of March 2009.

The entire responsibility for operation and maintenance of the Koshi Barrage and embankment area falls on India, according to the Nepal-India Koshi Treaty,1954.