Nepal's hydropower development: Predicament and dilemma in policy‐making

Abstract

Nepal, the world's second most water‐rich country, nevertheless struggles to provide sufficient domestic electricity. Despite Nepal's potential to become the hydropower source for South Asia, it still relies heavily on importing electricity from India. This paper investigates why Nepal's hydropower capacity is inadequately utilized from both domestic and international perspectives and finds that domestic factors such as geo‐climate features, weak infrastructure, political instability, and institutional deficiencies significantly hinder Nepal's hydropower development. From an international perspective, Nepal's geopolitical bonds and energy dependency with India and the regional power‐sharing configuration have significantly influenced its hydropower policy‐making. Furthermore, this paper proposes how Nepal could sustainably develop its hydropower for self‐sufficiency by establishing better policy instruments, attracting foreign investments, and upgrading its electricity infrastructure.

Evolution and future prospects of hydropower sector in Nepal: A review

“…In addition, the ecological aspects: margin principles (defined by 1993 EIA parameters [ 47 ]) and release rates (defined by the Water Resources Development Policy 2001) have been rigidly instituted, making it unfeasible for application to every type of hydropower project. This has also led to partial access and less usage of electricity, especially in rural areas [ 48 ].…”

Evaluation of multiple water quality indices for irrigation purposes for the Bheri and Babai River systems, Nepal

“…Nepal with its rich freshwater resources (WECS, 2011) has tremendous potential for hydropower generation, agriculture and irrigation; aquatic biodiversity, fishery and aquaculture (ADB, 2018). Studies have suggested that the country has the hydropower potential of generating 83,000 MW (Zou et al, 2021). However, only an estimated 15 (BCM) billion cubic meters is reported to be in use out of 225 BCM available surface water.…”