Promises are not enough

The Himalayan Times

29 July 2011

Promises are not enough

An English daily had recently reported that the annual loss of NEA exceeds Rs. 7 billion which could tremendously offset its enormous amount of deficit. Had the NEA been able to save this loss which also could drastically reduce the load shedding hours. The current total power generation of Nepal comes to around 700 megawatts of which Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is bearing around 29 % power loss due to technical loss, leakages and theft. The Energy Minister Gokarna Bista had also recently made promised to fight back to reduce this loss down to 20 % within the next six months. It is yet to be seen whether his good promises would be fulfilled.

Also, the government had launched Hydropower Investment and Development Company (HIDC) for power project development to address and improve the current power crisis in the country “New company to boost hydel projects” (THT, July 27, Page 2). Nepal is known to be the second largest country in the world for its water resources. However, it is now known as a country with load shedding of 16 hours a day. It sounds really ironical but is the reality that Nepal has not been able to fully harness its abundant water resources. The past government’s poor vision, bad governance, corrupt institutions and limited financial resources were the main reasons among others behind this pathetic situation.

The function of HIDC is yet to be known. However, its evolution should be positively taken and utilized to the fullest extent possible for addressing the acute power shortages of new Nepal by generating and providing necessary resources to the development of hydropower in the years to come. For this, HTDC should be fully equipped with proper human resources and keep away from petty politics. Otherwise, the people have seen the horrible performance of government owned organizations. Also, the concerned government ministry and department seems to have prepared lists (which are yet to be surveyed and prepared) of potential micro and macro level hydropower projects spread throughout the country and prepared detailed action plan for executing the prioritized projects accordingly.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharjgunj, Kathmandu

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