Indian technical team concerning Koshi deluge arriving today

KATHMANDU, Nov 4 - A high-level technical team is arriving in the capital from India on Tuesday to prepare to prepare a long-term plan to avert the perennial problem caused by the Koshi floods every year.The Indian team led by Chairman of Central Water Commission of India AK Bajaj is ...

The team will hold discussions with Secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources Shanker Koirala and other senior Nepali officials and experts including Joint Secretary at the Ministry Shital Babu Regmee, Director General of the Department of Irrigation Madhu Sudan Poudel, and Deputy Director General of the Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention (DWIDP) Khom Raj Dahal, after the visit.

According to the agreement reached at the Joint Committee on Water Resources (JCWR) talks that concluded on October 1 in the capital, a high level technical team from India will visit Nepal for a follow-up discussion in the first week of November to find a long-term solution to avert the Koshi hazard.

During bilateral talks, the two sides 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 to its original section by the end of March 2009.

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

Pilot channel for Koshi River fails disappointinglyThe attempt to divert the Koshi River back to its original course has failed.

Technical teams had built a pilot channel to make the River return to its original course.

However, the pilot channel was filled with sand after the water level in the River started decreasing gradually.

India contractors had brought dredger machine to remove the sand from the pilot channel, but failed to get rid of the sand.

The construction of pilot channel in the middle of the original Koshi River course was started one and a half months ago.

Technicians estimate that a channel of at least 10 feet depth must be dug to divert the Koshi River.

With this, the reconstruction works on the damaged embankment and East-West Highway has been unable to resume.