Hydropower development doubts

Assessing the future impacts of climate change on hydroelectricity is challenging in Nepal.

A few weeks ago, farmers who used water from the Rainastar Irrigation System (RIS) to irrigate their land protested at the construction site of Champawoti Hydropower in the Chepe Khola river that flows on the borderline of Lamjung and Gorkha in Gandaki Province. Over 500 people reportedly visited the hydropower office and vandalised it. Although the 5 MW run-of-river (RoR)-type project claimed that discharge from the hydropower plant would be 200 metres above the intake of the irrigation canal, the farmers said it would be below 200 metres after construction. Built in 1994 AD, the RIS has an initial command area of 850 hectares. The jointly managed irrigation system (JMIS) is fed by the same perennial river—Chepe Khola—and the irrigation system has a semi-modern system with a permanent headwork.