Experts insist on micro-hydro to solve power crisis

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    microhydropowerKATHMANDU, April 19:Experts insist that focusing on micro-hydro is the only cost effective and easy solution for ever growing energy crisis in the country. Nepal has the potential to establish more than 2200 micro hydro projects and realizing this would change the face of the nation.

    Speaking at a workshop in the capital on Friday, Minister for Science and Technology and vice chancellor of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) Umakanta Jha said that a developing country like Nepal should develop micro hydropower projects at the community level.

    “It is unfortunate that a country which has immense possibility of hydropower is facing long hours of load shedding. It is high time to focus on hydropower projects and move ahead,” he said.

    A total of 50 hydropower experts, senior scientists and technicians of the country and 26 foreign delegates from 16 countries including India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Sri-Lanka, Vietnam and Indonesia are participating in the 3-day workshop that kicked off today. The international workshop on ´the role of micro-hydro for developing countries´ has been jointly organized by NAST, Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) and Science and Technology Centre of India.

    At the program, executive director of AEPC professor Govinda Raj Pokhrel stressed for a concrete policy and plan to exploit the hydro-power potential.

    “We are so rich in water resources, yet we are facing acute power crisis. The problem cannot be addressed until and unless we have suitable policy for micro-hydro projects which alone is reliable solution to the serious problem we have,” he said. Secretary of NAST, Prof Prakash Chandra Adhikari added that concrete policy on micro-hydro would speed up the country´s development.

    Micro-hydro has increasingly been popular in the country over the years. According to Pokhrel, Nepal has made remarkable strides in micro-hydro in the past two decades but a lot needs to be done.

    Source : Republica