Indian team to arrive Nov 4

BY THIRA L. BHUSAL
KATHMANDU, Nov 1

A high-level technical team from India will arrive in Kathmandu on Nov. 4 to study the devastation caused by the Koshi floods and prepare a long-term plan to avert the perennial problem.

The Koshi burst its embankment at West Kushaha in Sunsari district on Aug. 18, subsequently affecting more than 60,000 people in Nepal and 3.2 million in the Indian state of Bihar.

The Indian team led by Chairman of Central Water Commission of India A.K. Bajaj will visit Koshi-ravaged areas for two days starting from Nov. 5. The visit will be followed by discussions with senior Nepali officials and experts from the Ministry of Water Resources, according to Joint Secretary Shital Babu Regmee at the Ministry.

Regmee, Director General of the Department of Irrigation Madhu Sudan Paudel, and Deputy Director General of the Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention Khom Raj Dahal, among others, will take part in talks with the visiting Indian team.

The visiting Indian team will find durable solutions for Koshi embankment protection, according to the agreement reached at the Joint Committee on Water Resources (JCWR) talks that concluded on Oct. 1 in Kathmandu.

The bilateral talks headed by Water Resources Secretaries from both countries 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 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.

THE KATHMANDU POST