BENEFITS AND BURDEN A CASE STUDY OF Gandak River Agreement AJAYA DIXIT ASHUTOSH SHUKLA FIRST EDITION 2017 November PUBLISHED BY Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET)-Nepal and ActionAid Nepal. © ISET-Nepal and ActionAid Nepal 2017 The material in publication may be reproduced in whole or in part and in any form for educational or non-profit uses, without prior written permission from the copyright holder, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. We would appreciate receiving a copy of any product which uses this publication as a source. CITATION Dixit, A. and Shukla, A. (2017). Benefits and Burden: A Case Study of Gandak River Agreement. Kathmandu: ISET-Nepal and ActionAid Nepal. Cover Photo by: Ajaya Dixit BENEFITS AND BURDEN A CASE STUDY OF Gandak River Agreement AJAYA DIXIT ASHUTOSH SHUKLA Acknowledgement his paper is an outcome of the research on Gandak Agreement, its implementation and outcomes. ISET-Nepal Tcarried out this study with support from ActionAid Nepal. We would like to thank ISET-Nepal’s research officers Rabi Wenju and Anustha Shrestha for their input. We also thank Bishnu Lakhe, Vibhustuti Thapa and Sheela Bogati for their contributions. We would like to express thanks to Ms. Sujeeta Mathema, Acting Country Representative of ActionAid Nepal and Mr. Dinesh Gurung, the DRR, Climate Change & Humanitarian Response Coordinator toActionAid for their support. Lastly, we thank Narayanshree Adhikari of ISET-Nepal and Suresh Shrestha and Binod Tamang of Digiscan for designing and layout of this report. Executive Summary his paper uses 1959 Gandak River Agreement between Nepal and India as a case study to assess performances Tof the infrastructure built under the treaty and their services in Nepal. The Gandak Irrigation and Power Project (GIPP) provides irrigation water to areas in Nepal through Nepal Gandak West canal (NGWC) and Nepal East Canal (NEC). The paper examines the context of irrigation, hydropower and flood mitigation issues in plain areas of Nepal’s Nawalparasi District. The study has found that the development indicators of the households living with the command area served by the NGWC are lower than that of adjoining districts and at the national level. The two governments signed the Agreement to harness water of the Gandak River for the benefits of the countries and people living on both side of the border. The low development indicators in the command area of NGWC suggests that the cooperative narrative on transboundary rivers have not yet included performance of the systems built under the agreement in meeting stated objectives of cooperation. The area served by GIPP faces degradation of local ecosystem, perpetual flood inundation and depleted well-being of communities living in the service area. The discourse on transboundary water cooperation must recognize the prevailing local circumstances and performances of the infrastructure built. Cooperative efforts must also appreciate complexities of intra and inter governmental coordination as well as emerging challenges posed by degradation of water commons and climate change. Continuous examination of the emerging challenges need to continuously inform the discourse on transboundary water development and management. Contents Context 6 River System 8 Gandak River Agreement 9 System Elements 10 Dynamics of Benefits and Burden 12 Livelihoods: Contributions versus Disjunction 19 Issues and Challenges 24 Way Forward 26 Notes 29 References 30 6 BENEFITS AND BURDEN CONTEXT ater is intrinsic to ecosystems, The advent of the 19th century Basin (GRB). The major tributaries and Wlives and livelihoods. That 60 saw widespread use of science and the Ganga River have been harnessed per cent of the human body contains technology to develop infrastructure for irrigation, hydropower generation, water reveals the fact that human such as dams, barrages and canals. and drinking water supply benefits survival is not possible without it. We In the industrialized west, these to rural and urban areas. To obtain need water for drinking, growing food, investments did meet the objectives these benefits, Nepal and India have generating electricity, and meeting for which they were implemented— signed agreements on the Koshi, recreational, cultural and religious drinking water, irrigation, hydropower Gandaki and Mahakali rivers in 1954, needs. Water is a natural coolant as and flood mitigation. Subsequently, 1959 and 1996, respectively. The well as a solute that flushes out sweat the high cost of this approach on first treaty on Mahakali concluded from the human body and pollutants the ecosystem and the dependent in 1920, was subsumed in the 1996 and dirt from human-built systems. downstream communities have Integrated Treaty on the Mahakali Water in nature has the capacity to been evident. The ecosystem faced River. These treaties have paved the recuperate its quality loss as long as irreversible damages while many way for construction of barrages, the pollutant loads do not exceed a local communities lost their means of canals, hydropower plants and threshold. Despite its fundamental role living. In the developing world, the use embankments and have brought in nature and society, water is taken of this approach has neither improved some benefits. However, they have for granted. The approach to water services nor maintained the health of also resulted in many unintended development, use and management fresh water bodies. consequences. has not overcome its degradation. The applications and approaches to The performances of irrigation canals The amount of water on the earth water development and management have been poor and embankments today is as much as it used to be that progressed in the industrialized have led to waterlogging, while flood millions of years ago. From space, countries have not resonated well plains and settlements have become the earth with its oceans looks blue with the developing countries, more vulnerable to floods. Mixed and is rightly called the Blue Planet. who have different social, political results have been observed where But ocean water is saline and unfit and governance contexts. While embankments have been built to save for human use. Of the total water on the historical mismatch remains, flood plains from overflowing and to earth, only 3% is fresh. If this amount high rates of urbanization, land-use save lives, properties and damage of fresh water estimated at 36x106 km3 alterations and global climate change to infrastructure. At places they have were allocated for each inhabitant have introduced new challenges. brought some relief immediately of this planet, he/she would have a These relate to harnessing, use and after they were built but in many share of five million cubic meters1. equable management of water cases, they have caused waterlogging This mathematics, however, is to meet various needs while also and prevented floodwaters from meaningless because fresh water is maintaining its overall quality. Use depositing fertile silt on land, in turn neither evenly distributed on earth and management of trans-boundary hampering soil build-up and gains in nor is available continuously for 24 rivers, lakes and groundwater are agricultural productivity. hours, 365 days. Most of the water even more difficult. Countries sharing is available in areas where people such freshwater sources have not Increasing urbanization, land-use do not live: Arctic, Antarctic, snow been successful in ensuring quality changes, changes in flow regimes, covered mountains and glaciers. The of services from water infrastructure, floods, sedimentation and pollution melt of glaciers and snow deposits reversing its degradation, and further stress fresh water and affect sustain flows of rivers, which are also promoting stewardship in managing hundreds of thousands of people augmented by rainfall within regional water at the local and basins scales. in the GRB dependent on rivers, hydrological cycles. Groundwater, lakes and wetland for livelihood. lakes and ponds are other important The degradation of fresh water Intertwining with social and political sources of fresh water for a majority of threatens millions living in Nepal, India sources of vulnerabilities, these the people. and Bangladesh in the Ganga River processes further threaten their Himachal Pradesh A CASE STUDY OF GANDAK RIVER AGREEMENT 7 N Punjab Ganga CHINA Uttarkhanda Sarda Haryana Karnali Delhi NEPAL Gandak Sikkim Yamuna Sun Koshi Bhutan Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh Gomati Koshi Chambal Ghaghara Bihar Assam Banas Meghalaya Haogli Betwa Son Ken Rihand West Bangladesh Jharkhanda Bengal Damodar Gujarat Madhya Pradesh INDIA Chhattisgarh Orissa Maharashtra Bay of Bengal FIGURE 1 Ganga River Basin 0 250 500Km livelihoods. Climate change induced are: How competing water needs decision-makers and civil society increase in temperatures and can be reconciled? What adaptive actors as participants along with evaporation are affecting patterns measures can be promoted to deal governments, their agencies, and the of rainfall and increasing threats of with changes in the local and regional private sector. The dialogue platforms deadly heat waves and droughts in hydrological cycles emanating from should encourage participants to the GRB. The higher frequency and rising concentration of green house examine assumptions behind policy- instances of extreme rainfall, impeded gases? Past agreements on trans- making, the performance and to drainage and poor management boundary rivers have not critically suggest