Environmental compliance of hydropower projects in Nepal

Abstract

The construction of hydropower projects is proliferating, and environmental studies are conducted to make them more environmental-friendly. As properly managed hydropower projects have minimal environmental impacts, the environmental compliance of the projects should be assessed to know whether they are properly managed. However, the environmental compliance of the hydropower projects has not been adequately evaluated. To understand such compliance, we assessed the implementation status of the mitigation measures proposed in the approved environmental study reports of the hydropower projects of Nepal as a case study. We studied eight hydropower projects, of which three were under-construction, and five were operated projects. We found that about three-fourths of the mitigation measures are partially or fully implemented in hydropower projects. There are no substantial differences in the environmental compliance between operated and under-construction hydropower projects. We found that socio-economic and cultural environment-related mitigation measures are mostly implemented in hydropower projects. However, there are some major environmental non-compliance of hydropower projects in the physical and biological environment, which can severely undermine the environmental performance of the hydropower projects. As hydropower projects are necessary for reducing the negative impacts of fossil fuels in Nepal and the global context, these mitigation measures should be implemented to make them more environment-friendly. We recommend frequent inspection and monitoring and other measures that should be urgently applied to increase the environmental compliance of hydropower projects. Similarly, further research on the reason behind the non-compliance, the effectiveness of the mitigation measures, and ways to improve the compliance rate should be carried out.