‘Small power projects more advantageous’

January 14, 2000
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Kathmandu, Jan. 14:Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalist today organised a brainstorming programme to discuss about the potential small and medium scale hydro power projects that are overshadowed by the talks of huge projects. However, the gathering of power experts, representatives of government bodies formed to facilitate power development and journalists failed to concentrate on the fixed issue.

The advocates of the smaller projects pressed the view that since the projects could be constructed, managed and financed by local recourses they would yield better for Nepalese population. They blamed the government of selling “unachievable dreams” to the public and neglecting potential smaller scale projects that could change lifestyle of people in a smaller investment.

“Selling the produced power from huge projects may increase national coffer, but that does not necessarily improve living standard of the general public,” claimed Manager of Lamjung Electricity Development Company Kumar Pandey. Instead of opting for mammoth projects, more concentration should be paid to provide facilities to the public and enhance their productivity and consumption capacity, suggested Girish Khanal, a mechanical engineer.

Ratna Sansar Shrestha of Winrock International, organisation that provides financial aid to small scale hydro power projects, said that advocates of bigger hydro power projects are mainly concerned about technological aspects of the projects but have been neglecting a management aspects. “They are eager to build huge projects without thinking about possible market to sell them and searching for avenues to cash in on their construction,” he said. He also claimed that government should make amendments in its policy to benefit from forward and backward linkages of these projects, finds way to retain the investments made in these projects within the country and raising rates of royalties to be paid by foreign power developers.