Benefits and Burden : A case study of Gandak River agreement
The Gandak is one of the four snow-fed Himalayan river of the Gandak rivers basin in Nepal and is fed by seven major tributaries. The Gandaki river Basin gets most of it’s rainfall from the moisture-laden monsoon winds that blow from the Bay of Bengal between June and September. The Governments of Nepal and India signed the Gandak agreement in 1959. It formed the basis for the construction of barrage, canal systems serving in India and Nepal, a hydropower plant to supply power to Nepal as well as a flux bunds, spurs and embankments. The publication presents grounded evidence from West Gandak Canal (WGC) and Nepal Gandak Water Canal (NGWC) to inform discourse on transboundary water resources development. The comparisons revealed that the agricultural performance in command area of the irrigation system fed by project is below irrigation potential. Regular flooding in the Gandak River also has impact and is pronounced on the lower region downstream of the barrage.