Nepal - Terai Groundwater Irrigation Project

Report No. PID7460 Project Name Nepal-Terai Groundwater Irrigation Project Region South Asia Sector Rural Development Project ID NPPE50672 Implementing Agency His Majesty's Government of Nepal Contact: Mr. B.R. Regmi Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources His Majesty's Government of Nepal Kathmandu, Nepal Date PID Prepared December 22, 1998 Board Presentation Date August 2000 1. Project Objectives. The objective is: (i) the capacity of National Government to formulate policy and legislation framework for groundwater management; (ii) Local Governments' (DDCs and VDCs) capacity to monitor and manage groundwater resources defined by Groundwater (GW) Conservation Zones and (iii) local beneficiary water user associations (WUAs) to properly utilize and maintain groundwater resources for sustainable increased agricultural production in Bara, Parsa and Rupandehi Districts of the Terai. 2. Project Description. The main components of the project would be: Component 1- Institutional Strengthening. The project would address the groundwater management issues in the context of nation's water resources strategy formulation for establishment of Groundwater Legislation and Regulation. It would also aim at institutional strengthening of the present Groundwater Development Division of the Department of Irrigation (DOI) to enabling in proper planning and monitoring of the expanded exploitation program of groundwater potential in the Terai and information dissemination of district-wise groundwater potential and usage to the public and to the local government including Water User Associations. Support for strengthening the local participation of DDC, VDC, WUAs, and women's groups in groundwater irrigation will also be provided for within this component. Component 2-A Irrigation of 4,000 ha by Medium/Deep Tubewells in Rupandehi and Birgunj areas. The project would provide funds for the systematic development of M/DTW irrigation on about 4,000 ha of land in the unit size of 15 (MDTW) or 40 (DTW) hectares in areas where: (i) the manually driven STW are not possible; (ii) where manually driven STW are possible but the transmissivity of aquifier is not sufficient enough to irrigate the targeted 4-5 ha per well at a shallow depth of about 20 m; and (iii) where the area is not covered by NISP (i.e. mainly in Central Region). The project would be designed following the Government's demand-based approach for all options of TW . Based on this area selection, the proposed project would complement groundwater irrigation to those areas where manually driven STW are infeasible . This approach would enable farmers' participation in planning, design, construction, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of groundwater irrigation management. The TW units (15 ha or 40 ha) will be handed over to farmers after completion for their ownership and management. Unless a TW location is very near to power line (less than 1-2 Km) all TW units will be  diesel driven. Based on the consultant report, TW unit sizes with command area of 15 ha and 40 ha have been found feasible among different sizes such as 5 ha STW, 15 ha MDTW, and 40 to 80 ha DTW. The recommended sizes have been chosen based on groundwater project experiences in other projects executed in the country including the completed Irrigation Line of Credit pilot project, and in light of: (i) organizational and maintenance manageability by WUGs, (ii) lithological constraints and the potential for over- and under- exploitation in the case of STW development; and (iii) the incidental benefits derived from access roads and electrification if required for the development of S/M/DTWs and DTWs. The tentative distribution of the TW by project sub- areas would be (a) 3,000 ha command area for Birgunj area in two districts Bara and Parsa and (b) about 1000 ha command area for Rupandehi area. The Rupendihi area will serve as the pilot phase for the proposed development in the first year of the proposed project to test the farmers' response to Government's new subsidy policy to MDTW/DTW. It should be emphasized that selection of subareas for clustered TW development from among the proposed two regions will be based equally on physiography, hydrogeology, accessibility, user readiness, and economics, and therefore can be changed at the later stages of project preparation. Component 2B- Management Transfer of Narayani Zone Irrigation Development Project (NZIDP) Deep Tubewells. The proposed project is based on the demand- driven principle and all tube-well units after development would be transferred to the WUGs for O&M and ownership. In the Birgunj area, in late 1960s there have been operating 29 public DTWs each with a service unit area of size 100-120 ha which were constructed under NZIDP. These TW were originally designed to serve the total area of 2,800 ha. However, the performance of these wells has not been encouraging. Out of 29 DTWs drilled and developed originally, only 14 wells are operating at present at less than design capacities. If the proposed TGWIP established M/DTW irrigation in the same area under the principle of demand driven approach in which beneficiary farmers would takeover O&M of the finished TW units, there should not be two different modes of operation in the same area i.e. public and private management. The project would provide assistance to carry out management transfer of these 14 public DTWs so that there are no longer public tube-wells for irrigation operating in the area. The management transfer of the NZIDP DTW would be taken as initial project activities and as test case for farmers' interest in the TW irrigation. 3. Project Implementation. The project would be implemented over a five year period. The tentative arrangement (to be refined further during preparation) for overall project management, followed by possible arrangement for implementing each component. Implementation of the project's institutional strengthening component would be the main responsibility of the DOI, which falls under the administrative jurisdiction of the Ground Water Resources Development Board (GWRDB) of the MOWR. Formulation of the draft Groundwater Legislation and Regulation would be carried out before the Board approval by the Ministry of Water Resources (MOWR) with guidance from the Cabinet of Ministers. HMGN would institutionalize the Ground Water Regulation in the first year of the project and would entrust the authority to the concerned District WR Committee (DWRC) in accordance with the GW conservation zones. The DWRCs would be assisted technically by the district Groundwater Project Offices (GPOs) within the proposed project area. All GPOs would also implement the groundwater - 2 -  exploration and monitoring program but the central GW project office will be responsible for providing technical and man-power support and for establishing the district-level GW maps. The physical implementation of the tube well units in the project area would follow the guidelines and sub-project selection criteria adopted under Nepal Irrigation Sector Project. The technical assistance (consultancy services) would be provided to the central GW project office for GW exploration, exploitation and supervision support of the project. The strengthened Butwal and Birgunj Groundwater Field Offices (FO) of the Groundwater Resources Division along with the concerned DDC/VDC would hold primary responsibility for implementation of the TW installation and the Narayani Zone privatization components. These two FOs would provide post-project technical support to the relevant WUGs. A detailed project implementation arrangement would be a subject for discussions in Borrower's Project Implementation Plan. 4. Project Costs Financing. The project cost is estimated at US$ 25 million. Bank assistance would be about US$21.8 million. Disbursements under the credit would be against civil works, equipment and vehicles, agricultural support services activities, training and consultancy services. Civil works would be grouped in small packages and geographically scattered, as such national competitive bidding would be the predominant procedure. 5. Environmental Impact. The project has been classified as B Category. Strengthening the environmental management dimension is particularly important in relation to adoption of legislation and regulations for groundwater development (exploration and exploitation). It will be harmonized with the Environmental Protection Act and other legislation related to agriculture and water resources uses. Thus, the institutional framework for promoting sustainable agriculture and preventing environmental degradation associated with groundwater projects throughout Nepal will be strengthened. The specific TW installation component should also be considered in the light of the environmental action plan component of the National Water Resources Strategy currently being developed by the Government. The M/DTW irrigation on about 4,000 ha land could potentially have the following adverse effects of groundwater abstraction: (a) land subsidence caused by abstraction of groundwater; (b) effects on spring discharges, and (c) interference with prior water rights. So far TW are estimated to have no effects on the yields of existing shallow TWs and thus should not interfere with prior water rights. Groundwater irrigation could generally have adverse effects on: (a) soil fertility and water pollution through increased use of fertilizers and pesticides; (b) biological aspects of impacts of particularly aquatic biota in the ecosystems downstream of the command areas, through water pollution; and (c) socio-economic and human health aspects possibly occurring from use of pesticides. Construction/rehabilitation of about 80 km of tertiary (farm to market) feeder roads warrants environmental consideration during the implementation phase. In both Rupandehi and Bara/Parsa areas, it appears that migrants from the hills are encroaching on forest areas. An Environmental Impact Assessment of the BLGWP project area, first conducted in 1993 and updated in 1998, concludes that the project has not had direct impact on deforestation. However, monitoring must take place under the proposed project to ensure that support for irrigation development will not serve to regularize existing encroachments and encourage future encroachers. An Environmental Baseline Survey regarding - 3-  this issue will be completed by the end of March 1999 for both project areas, and will set the indicators against which environmental impacts of the project will be closely monitored. The proposed project whould be designed observing elements of the environmental action plan component of the National Water Resources Strategy presently being developed by the Government. The technical assistance for drafting and adopting legislation and regulation of groundwater development would include building adequate regulation for environmental safeguards into the legislation, consistent with the Government's Environmental Protection Act and Regulations of 1997. An environmental management and monitoring plan would be formulated as an integral component of the project and executed throughout the construction and post-construction stages. Baseline studies against which impact assessments can be made and later compared should be started as soon as possible. Consistent with the intentions for the Water Resources Strategy Formulation, as well as with the overall objective to actively manage the Terai groundwater aquifer for sustainability, a Regional Environmental Assessment (REA) would be instituted at the preparation. The REA should interface with the groundwater exploration and monitoring program of GWD/DOI and the District Project Offices, and with the development of the overall water/aquifer management strategy. REA will assess environmental concerns with the use of resource as an entity, including cumulative impacts of alternative development and management strategies related to the current 4000 ha. and adjacent GW schemes. The REA will also address issues related to encroachment of bounding areas, nationally classified and intended maintained as forests. In addition to the baseline studies related to encroachment (see above), these should include assessing water quality of groundwater, present outflow and recharge of the aquifer in the command area, and present water supply/abstractions for use by inhabitants of the area. The indicative EA findings of the 1993 feasibility studies should be reexamined for confirmation. Notification of the project should be done to upstream and downstream riparian, as well as to the general public in the command area. 6. NGO and Beneficiary Participation. The project would promote the involvement of both local Intermediary Organizations and community groups in the choice and location of the project TW location. Beneficiaries would be responsible for the design, implementation, operation and maintenance of TW to ensure their sustainability. Beneficiary participation will be both in cash and in kind for investment as per Government's Irrigation Policy, and upon completion of the TW systems, they will be agreed to take over for ownership and O&M. As part of project preparation, a detailed Institutional Assessment will be carried out in order to 'map' the extent of existing local organizational capacity in the project area. The Institutional Assessment will focus on existing intermediary organizations, and will aim to understand how well they have been able to foster and strengthen WUAs. Information dissemination, environmental awareness raising, and skills-training should be offered to WUGs using NGOs in order to institutionalize measures that will enable members of WUGs to cope sustainably with environmental issues in their farming practices 7. Impact on Women. The new Irrigation Policy mandates 20 percent representation of women in WUGs, which is currently about 5%. Based on the - 4 -  findings and recommendations of the Review and Evaluation of Women's Roles and Needs in Irrigated Agriculture and the Inventory and Capacity Assessment of Govt. Agencies, NGOs and Others Involved in Activities for Women, the project would address the following: (a) promotion of active participation of women in WUG management through extended membership, (b) link up with and strengthen existing activities catering to women, which will be prioritized and selected by women themselves, (c) promotion of women's skills development regarding improved agricultural practices and other income generation activities, and (d) promotion of active roles of women in pilot demonstration farms to ensure their involvement from the beginning. Contact Point: The InfoShop The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone No. (202)458 5454 Fax No. (202) 522 1500 Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain activities and/or components may not be included in the final project. Processed by the InfoShop week ending March 26, 1999. GW conservation zones (and sub-zones) are to be determined as per recharge divides, approximately lying in between the four major perennial river systems, namely, Koshi, Narayani, Karnali, and Mahakali. In order to eliminate the farmers' options for the DTW for which the current subsidy is higher than STW, equitable subsidy for both TW types would be preconditions for further project preparation. In upper and middle Terai, where groundwater table is generally shallow and transmissivity of groundwater is high, the Terai ground is underlain by conglomerates (gravel and boulders) which limits the manual drilling for STW. In the case of lower Terai, where lithology is made up of mixed sand and clay bands, the transmissivity is usually not very high in many areas at the depth where STWs are developed. - 5 -