Hydropower threatening biodiversity

Nepal needs to diversify into solar, wind and modern biomass to lessen its ecological impacts.

A massive landslide in Jure of Sindhupalchok district on August 2, 2014 destroyed the towers of the Upper Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project and shut it down. Power supply resumed only after six months, but the April 25, 2015 earthquake ruptured the penstock pipes and flooded the power house. Around 80 percent of the reconstruction work had been completed when the disaster struck. Again in July 2016, a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) brought the project to a standstill. The 45-megawatt project that began commercial operations in 2001 has been running smoothly since December 2019 after a series of maintenance work.