Continuing follow up activity at the government level, on last year's devastating floods on the Kosi, some recent news reports. Thanks to Eklavya Prasad, graminunatti@gmail.com for forwarding: ==== Indian minister to visit Nepal July 10th, 2009 - 6:48 pm ICT by IANS - Kathmandu, July 10 (IANS) Less than a month after India sent its Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Nepal, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal is arriving in Kathmandu on a two-day visit Saturday. Bansal is the first Indian minister to visit Nepal since the fall of the Maoist government in August and the formation of a new coalition led by communist leader Madhav Kumar Nepal. Bansal will be inspecting the barrage on the Kosi river in southern Nepal, the bane of Nepal’s Terai region and adjoining Bihar state of India during monsoon, the Nepal Prime Minister’s Office in Kathmandu said.
Last year, the flooded Kosi killed over 1000 people, mostly in Bihar, and rendered over three million homeless. The flood created bad blood between the two neighbours. Nepal accused Bihar of neglecting its responsibility to maintain the Kosi barrage, while India said Nepal had failed to ensure security of its inspection team who was hindered from carrying out repairs in time. With the onset of monsoon this year, one of the 56 sluice gates of the Kosi has been damaged. On Thursday, a team from Jessop and Company, the Kolkata-based Indian wagon-manufacturing firm, arrived at barrage site in Sunsari district in southern Nepal to inspect the damage. The Indian authorities said that only Jessop, which built the nearly five-decade-old barrage, can undertake the repair of the damaged sluice gate. The work, according to initial estimates, can cost about Rs.150 million. Bansal will also pay a courtesy call on the prime minister in Kathmandu and meet Minister for Irrigation Bal Krishna Khand. The visit coincides with the Asian Development Bank announcing an assistance package worth NRS 150 million for the rehabilitation of nearly 50,000 people from three areas in southern Nepal who lost their homes in last year’s flood. India gives Nepal $1.6m to fight floods July 14th, 2009 - 7:08 pm ICT by IANS - Kathmandu, July 14 (IANS) Within 48 hours of Indian Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal visiting Nepal to inspect the repaired embankment of the Kosi river that had created havoc in both countries last year, India gave Nepal NRs.131.6 million (about $1.6 million) to fight floods. Alok K. Sinha, deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu, Tuesday handed over a cheque of NRs.131.6 million to Umakant Jha, secretary at Nepal’s irrigation ministry, as India’s contribution for the construction of embankments along the Lalbakeya and Bagmati rivers. The assistance comes after a decision by the India-Nepal Sub-Committee on Embankment Construction and Joint Committee on Inundation and Flood Management. India has been providing assistance to Nepal for strengthening and extending the embankments along the Kamla, Lalbakeya and Bagmati rivers. With the present assistance, the total grant assistance for embankment construction along these rivers during 2009 stands at NRs.449.10 million. India has also committed an additional grant assistance of NRs.109.9 million for flood protection work along the Trijuga, Lakhandehi, Sunsari and Kankai rivers. India suggests high dam over Kosi, invites Nepal minister July 12th, 2009 - 7:01 pm ICT by IANS - Kathmandu, July 12 (IANS) India’s Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal Sunday wound up an inspection of the Kosi river in Nepal, and suggested a high dam as a permanent solution to frequent floods of the river that hit both countries. The minister, who was personally sent by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that the mighty Kosi does not wreak the disaster it unleashed last monsoon, Sunday inspected the eastern embankment of the river that was breached by swirling waters, killing over 1,000 people in southern Nepal and India’s Bihar state. The Indian delegation included Vincent Pala, the central minister of state for water resources, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Bihar’s water resources minister, and senior officials. It was a joint inspection along with Nepal’s Irrigation Minister Bal Krishna Khand. At a joint press conference here after inspecting the repair undertaken on the damaged embankment and the condition of the flood-affected people, Bansal said a high dam was a permanent solution to the periodic ravages caused by the Kosi. India is mooting a 269-metre high dam that would, as a bonus, also generate 3,000 MW of electricity. The Indian team has invited the Nepali minister to visit India and inspect one of the country’s high dam projects, including the resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced, for assurance. Bansal said Khand could visit India next month. India is allocating Rs.852 million for automating the operation of the sluice gates of the Kosi barrage, repair of launching aprons and construction of downstream and upstream pilot channels. Earlier, New Delhi funded the reconstruction of about 1,700 metres of the destroyed embankment as well as spurs to bolster it at a cost of Rs.1,430 million. In addition, it has provided Rs.200 million for providing immediate relief to the people in southern Nepal’s Sunsari district who lost their homes in the 2008 floods. Bansal said while about 60,000 became homeless in Nepal last year, the devastation was higher in Bihar where 2.5 million were hit. The two governments have also agreed on round-the-clock patrolling of the twin embankments of the river during monsoon so that repairs can be done as and when needed. Bansal said Nepal has agreed to provide security to the patrols. The visit indicated a thaw in the frostiness that had developed last year when the two sides blamed each other for the flood. Khand said Bansal’s visit indicated the “high importance that the government of India imparts to the Kosi barrage, (its) embankments and the people related with the system as a whole”. During his two-day visit, Bansal and his delegation also held talks with Nepal’s new Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal. The Indian minister said though the Kosi was the primary reason for the visit, talks were also held on the “immense potential” of Indo-Nepal cooperation in the water resources sector, which would generate hydro power, control floods and provide water for irrigation.
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