It is quite unfortunate that our country has to resort to power cuts despite the fact that Nepal is the second-richest country in terms of water resources. Experts say that Nepal has the capacity of generating 40,000 MW of hydroelectricity but the fact of the matter is that the present installed capacity is just 702 MW while the peak-hours demand during the dry season is 950 MW. The peak demand is expected to rise to 1,400 MW by 2015 and the injection of 450 MW of power from UTKHPL and 200 MW of power into the national grid from other projects that are expected to be ready by then is expected to substantially ease our power woes.
The shortage of power at present is so acute that it has become an important subject of national discourse. Load-shedding has not only been inconveniencing the general public but eating into the profits of our industries while discouraging entrepreneurs from investing in new businesses. The regular power cuts in fact are also one of the main reasons fuelling the frustration of a populace who are already disenchanted by the non-completion of the peace process and constitution-writing task. Hence, PM Khanal was right when he termed it as a project of national priority while laying the foundation stone. However, we just hope that other important politicians and political parties too feel the same way.
We have reasons for being skeptical because of the history of our political parties of linking important hydropower projects with politics and obstructing or completely stopping work there. In the early 1990s, soon after the restoration of democracy, CPN-UML forced the government to shelve the Arun III project. Had the Arun III project been allowed to complete, we would not have been facing power cuts now. Last year, as part of their anti-India campaign, the UCPN (Maoist) for quite some time obstructed work at the 300 MW Upper Karnali Hydropwer Project, which has investments of an Indian firm. We hope that our political parties have learnt their lessons and that they would not resort to such populist politics at the cost of national development in the future. In the same breath, we also hope that UTKHPL, as scheduled, will see the light of day by 2015.
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