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Objective            :     To explain the importance of clean drinking water and electricity for the development and provide possible help.

Introduction:

Water is one of the important basic elements and needs of all living beings. We use water for various purposes like drinking, electricity; irrigation etc. about 71% part of the earth is covered with water.

We get water from different sources like lakes, rivers, ponds, wells, tube well, rain; snow capped mountain ranges, glaciers etc. many great civilizations were developed in the river valleys like Nile Valley, Hwang-Ho Valley, Yangtse, Shikyang, Indus etc.

Nepal is the second richest country in the water resources. About 6000 rivers of Nepal which originate from the Himalayas enrich Nepal in such sources. Besides rivers, we also have many lakes, ponds, springs and Nepal receives adequate rainfall. Yet, there has been a shortage of clean drinking water in many parts of Nepal. The sources of drinking water in Kathmandu valley are limited and the population is growing rapidly. In near future, Melamchi Drinking Water Project will be completed and the problem of drinking water of Kathmandu will be solved. At the end of Ninth Five Years’ Planning, 71.6% people were supplied with clean drinking water i.e. piped water. People’s participation is a must to control leakage of water and provide pipe water to all people.

Several irrigation canals have been built to increase the production crops, they are:

  1. Chandra Canal
  2. Juddha Canal,
  3. Manushmara Canal
  4. Koshi Canal
  5. Chatara Canal
  6. Bagmati Canal
  7. Tinau Canal etc.

Electricity has become one of the basic requirements of modern life. Electricity produced from the energy of moving water is called hydro-electricity. This water energy is produced from natural waterfall and human-made dams.

Electricity is used for various purposes like light, cooking, operating heaters, refrigerators, washing machine, irons and other electric gadgets in small scale and big machines at industries at a large scale.

In Nepal, electricity was first produced in the year 1965 B.S. through Farping hydro-electricity project. Nepal has a potential of producing 83000 MW of electricity but about 800 MW has been produced so far. During dry season, it decreases to 200-300 MW so, we have to face long hour of load-shedding every year. In the year 2065 B.S., there was 16 hours of load-shedding daily which was unfortunate to the richest country in water resources. Some of the major hydro-electricity projects running in Nepal are:

S.N. Hydro-electricity Projects Capacity
1 Kaligandaki A 144 MW
2 Marsyangdi 69 MW
3 Kulekhani I 60 MW
4 Kulekhani II 32 MW
5 Khimtikhola 60 MW
6 Bhotekoshi 36 MW
7 Trishuli 21 MW
8 Chilime 20 MW
9 Modikhola 14 MW
10 Gandaki 15 MW
11 Devighat 14 MW
12 Sunkoshi 10 MW
13 Jhimruk 12 MW

Many foreign agencies and donor countries have been helping us in developing hydro power. Construction work of Middle Marsyangdi (70 mw), Chameliya (30 mw), Upper tamakoshi (310 mw), Upper Karnali (500 mw), Arun III (402 mw) etc. has been started recently. In near future, at the completion of these projects, we will have sufficient energy for our domestic use and also to export it to our neighboring countries.