Repair work on coffer dam begins

REPAIR work on the coffer dam of Rani, Jamara and Kulriya Irrigation Project, which was damaged by heavy flooding in the Karnali River in June, has begun. Due to high water level in the river, the work was suspended for four months. “The repair work has been started after the water level decreased,” said Suresh Kumar Sharma, senior division engineer at the project. Sharma said the river will be diverted through a temporary mud dam. He expected the work on diverting the river would take around a month. “Then, the construction work on the main intake will begin,” he said. The project had planned to complete the work on the intake in September, but the work was delayed after the flood damaged the coffer dam. “Now it will require seven more months to complete the main intake,’ said Sharma, adding it would not cause any delay in the overall project completion. “Since the work on the main intake and the canal will be carried out simultaneously, the overall project completion date will not change,” said Sharma. The project said it suffered losses amounting to around Rs 10 million due to the floods. The Kailali-based irrigation project is one of the largest farmermanaged irrigation systems in Nepal. It is being managed and operated by farmer communities. According to locals, Rani Kulo was built in 1896, Jamara in 1950 and Kulariya in1972. This system is a cluster of three independent “kulos”, or branch canal systems, each having separate water intake from the Karnali River. The irrigation project involves plan to build the main intake below the bridge of Karnali river with a 9 km main canal extending from the intake. Also, new auxiliary canals with a total length of 14 km will be built. The project will also rebuild farmer-managed canals, install mechanisms to protect the irrigated area and improve conditions of the village agriculture road. According to the current plan, the project will be operational in two phases. In the first phase, the irrigation facility will be improved, and in the second phase, other VDCs in the upper part of the east-west highway of Kailali district will have access to irrigation facilities after a new canal is built through the Balchaur VDC. This irrigation project will irrigate 5,300, 4,100 and 4,900 hectares of land through Rani, Kulriya and Jamara canals, respectively. In addition, 6,000 hectares of additional land will be irrigated along the eastwest highway. The project has investments from the government and the World Bank. The investment from the World Bank will be utilised for river control, improvement of roads and building auxiliary canals, while the government will pay for building the main intake and the canal. Since much of Nepal’s irrigation depends on monsoon rains, farmers hope the project will provide irrigation facilities year round. Besides increasing agriculture production, the project will also help attract tourists who come to visit the Karnali bridge, Sharma said. The project had planned to complete the work on the intake in Sept, but the work was delayed after the flood damaged the coffer dam