Letter from India stating that water will not be sent for canal cleaning and maintenance purposes
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As the wheat crop season approaches, India has said that it will not be able to provide water to the canal for the wheat crop this year. Thus, if the Indian side does not provide water to the canal, farmers in three districts of Parsa, Bara and Rautahat, which are dependent on the canal system, will be deprived of irrigation for their wheat crop. Nepali farmers are worried that this will reduce wheat production.
Engineer Suresh Prasad Sah, Information Officer of the Narayani Irrigation Management Office, Birgunj, said that the Don Kanal Office of the Gandak Canal in Ramnagar, Bihar, India, has sent a letter to his office in this regard to its superior office in Bettiah.
‘The Indian side has sent a letter to us directly, but has sent a letter to the superior body, we are asking for a direct letter,’ he said, ‘In the letter, it has been informed that there will be no water in the canal this year as work will be done through contractors in India this winter for the purpose of cleaning and maintenance of the canal.’
Sah says that the office has already written to the Federal Irrigation Department to inform it about the Indian side’s inability to provide water during the wheat crop season this year. "We are trying to communicate with the Indian side at the office level," he said, "but since this is a bilateral issue, the Irrigation Department should also formally pressure the Indian side in this regard and take necessary steps."
Currently, water has stopped flowing into the canal and the water that was previously frozen is drying up. After the water dries up, the Indian side will start maintenance work. Once the maintenance work starts, it will not be possible to provide water to the canal for wheat crops. But he argues that the Indian side may have time to provide water to Nepali farmers for irrigation and then start maintenance work.
In the next few days, Nepalese farmers will start sowing wheat seeds. After that, once the crops start to sprout, it will be enough to irrigate them once. As per the Gandak Agreement with India, the Indian side is supposed to provide 850 cusecs of water to the canal for wheat crops. Due to the non-receipt of water as per the agreement and the lack of regular maintenance of the canal on Indian soil, water does not reach the last point of the canal, i.e. the eastern part of Rautahat.
The canal has an irrigated area of 37,400 hectares, of which 16,000 hectares are in Parsa, 9,000 hectares in Bara, and the rest in Rautahat. According to the agreement, the Indian side must provide water to the canal every year on Asad 15 during the paddy crop season and on Poush 15 for the wheat crop.
The Indian side releases water into the canal from a barrage built on the Nepal-India border at Triveni Bhaisalotan in Nawalparasi. After traveling 92 km in India, this canal enters Nepal from Jagarnathpur Rural Municipality in Parsa. The length of the Gandak Canal, divided into 15 blocks in Parsa, Bara, and Rautahat, is 81 km on the Nepal side. In Nepal, this canal ends when it merges with the Bagmati River in Rautahat.
