A World Bank mission arrives in Nepal in mid-May to appraise the feasibility of the modified Arun III scheme, affectionately known as "Baby Arun". This rather oversized baby is still small fry in the eyes of the World Bank, but Baby Arun has serious implications for Nepal´s future development path.
If the World Bank is truly committed to the development of Nepal, surely it should be looking at ways of helping to build up local capability rather than perpetuating the cycle of dependence on foreign aid and offering a convenient channel for the marketing of Western goods and services. The objective of gigantic power projects should not be measured merely in terms of the number of megawatts produced, but on the establishment of greater capability to produce power, in order to continue the cycle of development.
Neither the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) nor the country itself has the capability to take on a project as large as Baby Arun. Consequently, all the technologies, expertise and funding will be shipped in from abroad. The aid package is almost entirely tied to the provision of goods and services from the donor countries.
There is another way. There is a far more practical, cost-effective and environmentally sound approach to hydropower than the current obsession with large-scale projects that are driven by the donor. By investing in smaller schemes using local capability, more power can be generated more quickly from the U$ 764 million budgeted for Baby Arun. Through this approach, load shedding could be overcome in five to six years instead of the ten to twelve anticipated with Baby Arun.