THE SMALL EARTH NEPAL

A National Workshop on Climate, Water and Energy Nexus – Identifying Gaps and Synergizing Knowledge was organized on 22 March 2014, World Water Day at Kathmandu, Nepal by The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) on behalf of Nepal National Water Week 2014. The program was supported by Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).The workshop was attended by policy makers, researchers and academia, power companies and other relevant water and energy stakeholders from different governmental and non-governmental institutions including INGOs.

The workshop aimed to explore the existing knowledge on the climate, water, energy and their inter-linkages and relations forming a lifecycle nexus impacting on the human life in general and on the Nepal’s perspective.
The workshop successfully brought together policy makers, researchers and academia, power companies and other relevant stakeholders and discussed to explore existing knowledge of climate, its impacts on hydrology and the current status of hydropower, future scenarios of climate and river runoff and projection of energy demand in Nepal.

The workshop was divided into three sessions: Plenary Session, Technical Session-I (Water and Climate) and Technical Session-II (Water and Energy). The plenary session was designed for non-technical remarks from water and energy experts whereas the two technical sessions were designed for technical presentation from the experts. The plenary session was chaired by Mr. Bishwo Prakash Pandit, Secretary, Ministry of Energy, Government of Nepal. The other dignitaries present in the session were Mr. Dipak Gyawali, water expert and academician at Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, Dr Bijaya Shrestha, Chairperson, Jalsrot Vikash Sanstha, Mr. Arjun Kumar Karki, Managing Director, Nepal Electricity Authority, Er. Mahendra B. Gurung, First Vice Chair, NNWW-2014 and Mr. Sudarshan Rajbhandari, Secretary, NNWW-2014 and Vice-President, The Small Earth Nepal.

The first technical session was chaired by Dr. Rishi Ram Sharma, Director General (DG), Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), Government of Nepal and the second technical session was chaired by Mr. Keshav Dhoj Adhikari, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Energy, Government of Nepal.

Among the paper presenters in the technical session were Mr. Vaskar Dahal from Institute of Engineering, TU, Mr. Samanta Acharya from Energy for Development Nepal, Dr. Santosh Nepal from ICIMOD, Mr Sher Singh Bhat from Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), Ms. Resha Piya from Alternative Energy Promotion Center, Mr. Gyanendra Lal Pradhan from Hydro Solution/ SAARC Energy Council.