Nepal and India Agree to Reduce Height of Saptakoshi Dam

Nepal and India Agree to Reduce Height of Saptakoshi Dam

Subject :Geography

Section: Places in news

Context:

• Nepal and India have agreed to reduce the height of the proposed Saptakoshi High Dam amid concerns in Nepal over the potential inundation of a large swathe of land upstream of the dam.

Details:

• A Nepal-India Joint Team of Experts was established to study the Saptakoshi High Dam Multipurpose Project and the Sunkoshi Storage and Diversion Project.
• It will reduce the hydropower generation to around 2,300MW, down from the earlier proposed 3,000MW from the multipurpose project.

Proposed hydropower projects between India- Nepal:

• Saptakoshi High Dam Multipurpose Project
• Sunkoshi Storage and Diversion Project
• A 756MW Tamor Storage Hydroelectric Project on theTamor river.
• The 635MW Dudh Koshi Hydropower Project.
• The 683MWSunkoshi 3 Hydropower Project.

Saptakoshi river:

• The Kosi or Koshi is a transboundary river which flows through China, Nepal and India. It drains the northern slopes of the Himalayas in Tibet and the southern slopes in Nepal.
• From a major confluence of tributaries north of the Chatra Gorge onwards, the Kosi River is also known as Saptakoshi for its seven upper tributaries. These include the Tamur River originating from the Kanchenjunga area in the east and Arun River and Sun Kosi from Tibet.
• The Sun Koshi’s tributaries from east to west are Dudh Koshi, LikhuKhola, Tamakoshi River, Bhote Koshi, Tamorand Indravati.
• The Saptakoshi crosses into northern Bihar, India where it branches into distributaries before joining the Ganges near Kursela in Katihar district.
• Kosi is the 3rd largest tributary of the Ganges by water discharge after Ghaghra and Yamuna.

Source: The Wire