HYDRO Nepal Journal – Issue 8(January 2011)

This paper generally describes the background of global hydropower CDM projects and the develop-ment of Small Hydropower (SHP) CDM projects in China. It analyses the features of China SHP CDM projects, and summarize their prospect and future challenges.

Keywords: Small Hydropower (SHP), Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) Development and Practice, China

In many occasions severe water leakage problems are faced in shotcrete lined or unlined water tun¬nels that not only reduce stability of the rock mass but also result in loss of valuable water in conveying tunnel systems. Such leakage causes safety risks and increases the potential for huge economic loss to the hydropower projects. On the other hand, use of full concrete lining as final support increases the construction cost and time considerably. The best way to reduce leakage control and construction costs and time is the use of pre-injection grouting in the headrace tunnels. This paper discusses the role that post-injection grouting has played for con¬trolling leakage through shotcrete lined/unlined low pressure headrace tunnel of the 60 MW Khimti I Hydropower Project in Nepal.

Keywords: Post-injection grouting, tunneling in Himalaya, controlling leakages in tunnels, Khimti, Nepal

Heavy metals are one of the prominent sources of pollution in industrial wastewater and excessive presence of these metals is causing severe health and environmental problems. The prevailing purification technologies used to remove these contaminants are costly and sometimes not eco-friendly, so industries often try to escape from their responsibilities that, in turn, creates severe problems for existence of life. There is a great need to put intense and expeditious efforts into the search for more feasible and effective technologies to mitigate this problem.
Several aquatic weeds are capable of sorbing metal ions from their solution and could be utilized as one of the cheapest sources for the treatment of waste water. Our study deals with the characteristics of this sorption process for chromium, lead, zinc and iron with macrophyte Hydrilla verticillata. The data are mathematically modeled with statistical analysis. H. verticillata is found to have great efficiency in removing metal ions from the sample of water. The process is eco-friendly and if applied in an efficient manner, would prove to be the best method to tackle the problem growing metal ion pollution in water bodies.

Keywords: Sorption, aquatic weed, Hydrilla verticillata, heavy metals, mathematical modeling, statistical analysis

Energy is the engine of growth of any developing economy. Consumption of electrical energy is universally accepted indicator of progress in the agricultural, industrial and commercial sectors, as also of the well being of the people of the nation. India is blessed with many rivers, natural streams, canal networks and mountains offering tremendous small hydropower potential which is clean and technically proven source of energy. Under this study, an attempt has been made to discuss the cost sensitive parameters of small hydropower schemes. Based on the cost sensitive parameters, the methodology for estimation of cost of low head small hydropower scheme has been evolved and the effect of soil conditions on cost of SHP schemes discussed.

Keywords: Installation cost, low head, small hydropower, soil types

Large-scale promotion of small scale decentralized renewable energy technologies to achieve a part of millennium development goal remained a great challenge until recently. However, a properly implementa-tion of a public private partnership applied in biogas sector in Nepal has shown that scaling up of small scale renewable energy technologies is feasible if a multi-stakeholder sector development approach and favorable policy as well as modality is adopted. Nepal’s biogas program has been instrumental in helping to achieve some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by creating economic and social development opportuni¬ties in a sustainable way. Such model could also be widely replicated in any other renewable energy technolo¬gies and other continent of the world.

Keywords: Animal Dung Based Biogas Digester, Dome type Biogas Plant, Nepal

Pakistan is subjected to rapid water shortage due to different social and environmental problems. Moreover, the drinking water is being contaminated at an alarming rate that is mostly due to the discharge of untreated domestic and industrial effluent and agricultural run-off. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the water quality problems of the subject area and to determine a cost effective treatment tech¬nique. The main objective was to determine the removal efficiency of microbial contamination using floccu¬lant settling. The main pollutants identified by conducting water quality tests are arsenic, fluoride, nitrates and microbial contamination. The maximum concentration of arsenic, fluoride, nitrates and microbial con¬tamination were observed as 12ppb, 2.2mg/L, 26mg/L and 84 colonies/100mL, respectively. During discrete settling tests performed in a 12cft column, it was noticed that the removal of microbial contamination corre¬sponding to a detention time of 225min is 26.7% only. While working on different coagulants, it was observed that the optimum alum, lime and magnesium dosage for the removal of microbial contamination is 31.5mg/L, 10.5mg/L and 27mg/L respectively. The final re-sults of the study suggest that the use of lime as a coagulant to improve the quality of water in terms of microbial contamination is an effective and reliable technique, both in terms of its treat-ability performance and cost-effectiveness, which was noticed to be 77.7%.

Keywords: Water quality, contamination, pollutants, coagulation, coliform, alum, Pakistan

Ungauged basins are challenges for hydrological study, the key discipline to analyse for planning and the operation of water resources projects. Several river basins have no hydrologic measurements where there is feasibility of promising water resources schemes. This study deals with use of the Hydrologiska Byråns avdeling for Vattenbalans (HBV) hydrological model to generate stream flow time series and other hydrological variables. The model was calibrated successfully in the Sanghutar catchment of the Likhu River of Nepal, and then used to simulate runoff series at the proposed intake site of Likhu HEP, where the gauging station has not been installed. The model can be used to generate runoff of other ungauged catchments which have similar catchment characteristics.

Keywords: Hydrological study, ungauged catchments, HBV model, runoff time series, Likhu river basin, Nepal

The disposal of untreated industrial effluent into receiving water courses has become a major en-vironmental challenge being faced by most of the developing countries. The high-strength and toxic wastes are responsible for a variety of water-borne diseases. In Pakistan numerous industrial units that dispose their effluent directly into receiving stream without any treatment. This study was, therefor designed to assess the wastewater characteristics of some major industrial units in the surrounding area of River Kabul, which is one of the most significant resources of water in the north region of the country.
The main objectives of this study were to evaluate the wastewater characteristics of some major industrial units in terms of BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), and TSS (Total Suspend¬ed Solids) etc. For this purpose, various representative samples were collected from the major industrial units like sugar, paper, ghee (Butter) and textile mills, and were analyzed using standard laboratory techniques. The results indicates that the BOD of sugar, paper, ghee (butter) and textile mills is in the range of 2235mg/L, 1150mg/L, 844mg/L and 745mg/L, respectively. Whereas, the COD of sugar, paper, ghee and textile mills was noticed to be 3945mg/L 2045mg/L, 2240mg/L and 1244mg/L respectively. Owing to the disposal of such high-strength wastes water without treatment, a remarkable increase in the TSS from 96 to 382mg/L, and decrease in DO (Dissolved Oxygen) concentration from 8.8 to 6.7mg/L of River Kabul was observed.
The results of this study suggest that all the wastewater coming from the industrial sources should be properly treated as an integral part of their production before their final disposal into River Kabul to secure its natural water quality.

Keywords: Industrial effluent, wastewater treatment, BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), TSS (Total Suspended Solids), River Kabul, Pakistan

On September 20, 1996 an overwhelming 96.5% of the members present at the Joint Session of the Nepalese Parliament hurriedly ratified the Mahakali Treaty to fulfill the requirements of Article 126 of the 1990 Constitution of Nepal.The then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Water Resources Minister Pashupati SJB Rana provided CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and CPN-UML Mahakali Study Team Coordinator KP Sharma (Oli) written replies on the “equal sharing” of the Mahakali waters. However, despite the lapse of 15 years, the two critical clauses: i) “…equal entitlement in the use of Mahakali waters without prejudice to their respective consumptive uses…,” and ii) “…precludes the claim, in any form, by either Party on the unutilized portion of the shares of the waters…” still remain obfuscated and clouded in mist. Is “equal entitlement” (50 percent each) considered after deducting the respective consumptive uses as interpreted but later withdrawn by Minister Rana? Or is this “equal entitlement” (50 percent each) considered prior to deducting the consumptive uses as interpreted by Secretary General MK Nepal and then applying the clause “without prejudice” to their re¬spective consumptive uses? No attempts appear to have been made by Nepal to elicit the Government of India’s interpretations on this vital issue.
The Ganges basin supports a massive over 523 million people; i.e., 450 million in India, 45 million in Bangladesh, and 28 million in Nepal. With India’s economy growing consistently at a high 8 to 9% annually, the quality of life of her people is definitely on the rise. This will invariably mean drastic increases in her per capita consumption of water. With Nepal contributing over 72% of the dry season flows of the Ganges, India’s eyes and ears are on Nepal either in the form of “…without prejudice to their respective consumptive uses…” or “…precludes the claim, in any form, …the unutilized portion of the waters…” However, Nepalese governments from the Panchayat era perceived water, whether by design or otherwise, as a mere secondary component of hydropower. Despite the full knowledge that water has become a scarce diminishing resource, the Nepalese Governments continue to be mesmerized by hydropower. This is manifested by the government unveiling in a span of two years her grand dreams of 10,000 MW in ten years and 25,000 MW in twenty years. This article attempts to delve into the intrica¬cies of the Mahakali waters as expounded by Prime Minister SB Deuba’s government during the extremely hurried ratification the Mahakali Treaty in 1996.

Keywords: Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project, Mahakali Treaty of 1996, India, Nepala

The process of finding optimal solution for utilization of hydro-energetic potential of a river flow is a very complex procedure, because it is necessary to find a compromise between an energetically optimal solution and a solution with lower negative influence on the environment and sociological conditions, which is often contradictory in practice. In order to show more precisely the complexity in choosing an optimal solution for utilization of hydro-energetic potential of a river flow, a mathematical model of multi-criteria optimiza¬tion and multi-criteria rating for different variants of utilization of the River Morača basin is presented in this paper. For the process of multi-criteria optimization, a complete software packages and large documentation as well as preliminary projects for planned hydropower plants have been used. The aim is to reach an optimal utilization of hydro-energetic potential of a river flow, especially in cases when the existing investigations do not give priority to a particular variant, and the hydropower plants need to be constructed in near future.

Keywords: Hydro-energetic potential, small hydropower, multi-criteria optimization, Morača river basin, Montenegro