New channel to alter Koshi course
Himalayan News Service
Itahari, September 8:
Nepal and India are drafting a plan to construct a channel to bring the Saptakoshi River back to its original course away from the human settlement. The Saptakoshi River gushed into the human settlement in Sunsari district after breaching dam spurs. The feasibility study to construct the channel in the middle of the breached area of the embankment is now in its final phase, a source said. “Senior officials of Nepal and India carried out an on-site aerial and boat survey,” the source said, adding the work to construct the channel would begin in a few weeks. “We are holding talks with the Indian team to draft strategies to bring the Koshi River to its original track,” a Nepali source said.
Meanwhile, Nepali technicians expressed dissatisfaction over the speed of the work being carried out at Spur No 1360. Kamal Regmi, director at Eastern Regional Irrigation Office said, “As the weather is clear, we expect the work will be expedited.” Mohan Bhattarai, divisional engineer at Water Induced Natural Disaster Control Office, said Nepal had supplied galvanised wire, nets and 55,000 empty cement sacks to the Indian technical team to check erosion of Spur No 1360. He said the river had stopped eroding Spurs No 11 and 12 at Rajabasghat.
Make public flood loss: NC:
KATHMANDU: Constituent Assembly member Nabindra Raj Joshi tabled a proposal at the party’s parliamentary party meeting on Monday, demanding that the Nepali Congress register it as a resolution at the parliament. Joshi’s proposal urges the government to brief the House on the actual loss of life and property after the Koshi embankment breached on August 18. He has also demanded that the government make public its position on the Koshi Agreement signed with India in 1954. It asked what measures the government was taking to address the short-term and long-term needs of the thousands of people affected and displaced by the floods. The proposal calls on the government to start construction of the damaged section of the highway and build an alternative bridge upstream to reduce the pressure on the Koshi barrage. — HNS
Rewati Raman Singh, a junior engineer from India, said the pace of work would pick up soon.
Source: The Himalayan Times, 9 September 2008
Nepal and India are drafting a plan to construct a channel to bring the Saptakoshi River back to its original course away from the human settlement. The Saptakoshi River gushed into the human settlement in Sunsari district after breaching dam spurs. The feasibility study to construct the channel in the middle of the breached area of the embankment is now in its final phase, a source said. “Senior officials of Nepal and India carried out an on-site aerial and boat survey,” the source said, adding the work to construct the channel would begin in a few weeks. “We are holding talks with the Indian team to draft strategies to bring the Koshi River to its original track,” a Nepali source said.
Meanwhile, Nepali technicians expressed dissatisfaction over the speed of the work being carried out at Spur No 1360. Kamal Regmi, director at Eastern Regional Irrigation Office said, “As the weather is clear, we expect the work will be expedited.” Mohan Bhattarai, divisional engineer at Water Induced Natural Disaster Control Office, said Nepal had supplied galvanised wire, nets and 55,000 empty cement sacks to the Indian technical team to check erosion of Spur No 1360. He said the river had stopped eroding Spurs No 11 and 12 at Rajabasghat.
Make public flood loss: NC:
KATHMANDU: Constituent Assembly member Nabindra Raj Joshi tabled a proposal at the party’s parliamentary party meeting on Monday, demanding that the Nepali Congress register it as a resolution at the parliament. Joshi’s proposal urges the government to brief the House on the actual loss of life and property after the Koshi embankment breached on August 18. He has also demanded that the government make public its position on the Koshi Agreement signed with India in 1954. It asked what measures the government was taking to address the short-term and long-term needs of the thousands of people affected and displaced by the floods. The proposal calls on the government to start construction of the damaged section of the highway and build an alternative bridge upstream to reduce the pressure on the Koshi barrage. — HNS
Rewati Raman Singh, a junior engineer from India, said the pace of work would pick up soon.
Source: The Himalayan Times, 9 September 2008
