Kabeli-A Hydroelectric Project - Preparation of Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA) for the Tamor River Basin, various Environment and Social Safeguards and Capacity Building Activities for the Department of Elec

2024-09-04

Funding Agency: The World Bank 
Client: Department of Electricity Development 
Date: September 2018 – September 2022 

The Kabeli A Hydroelectric Project (KAHEP) is a 37.6 MW combined peaking (during the lean season when flows are low) and run-of-river (during the monsoon season when flows are high) greenfield hydroelectric project located on the Kabeli River, within the Tamor River Basin, in the Taplejung and Panchthar districts in Eastern Nepal. The total length of Tamor River is about 190 kilometers (km) with a 5817 km 2 catchment area. Kabeli River, where the KAHEP is located, is one of the tributaries of the Tamor River. The total length of the Kabeli River is about 57 km, which up to the KAHEP intake site is 52.4 km. The Kabeli basin is located in-between latitudes 27° 16' and 27° 17' N and longitudes 87° 42' and 87° 43' E. The main components of the project include a dam (14.3 m high and 60 m long barrage), live storage of 335 thousand m3 on the river's natural flood plain; intake and settling basin and a design discharge of 37.73 m3 /sec, tunnel (4.3 km long, 5.6 m diameter), an above-ground powerhouse, with the tailrace discharge directly into Tamor river. The stretch of reduced water flow from the dam to the Tamor river is 5.6 km in length. The access road to headwork is about 7.4 km long and the access road to the powerhouse is about 15 km. A total of 47.71 ha of land will be required for the project, out of which 22.5 ha are permanently acquired and 25.21 ha is only temporarily required during construction. During the dry months of the year, from November to May, KAHEP will be operated as a peaking plant, and thus will be expected to generate electricity only during six-hours of peaking energy demand.

Specifically, the project will focus on:

1. Supervising, monitoring and evaluation for the implementation of KAHEP to ensure compliance with Social Action Plan (SAP);

2. Building technical, environmental and social safeguards capacity on integrated river basin management and cumulative impact management for sustainable hydropower development, including development and adoption of guidelines for CIA and involuntary resettlement and livelihood restoration; inter alia.

Overall Services provided:

    The detailed task of the consultant will include but not limited to the following:

    Task 1: Preparation of cumulative impact assessment (CIA) of the KAHEP located on the Kabeli River in the Tamor River Basin

    a.    Review the environmental impact assessment (EIA), the project development agreement (PDA), and the social action plan (SAP) of the KAHEP

    b.    Conduct a desk study and collect relevant information

    c.    River basin planning and management framework

    d.    Identification of stressors

    e.    Preliminary identification of Valued Environmental Components (VECs)

    f.     Site visits and consultations to prioritize VECs

    g.    Assessment of cumulative impacts on VECs

    h.    Determining the significance of predicted cumulative impacts.

    i.     Identification of potential mitigation measures

    Task 2: Building Capacity/ Training of DoED/ MOE staff for CIA coordination and management in the various Basins in Nepal for Hydroelectric projects

    Task 3: Review of the existing regulatory, planning, and implementation framework for Hydroelectric Power Projects with the objective of developing recommendations integrating CIA in Planning, preparation, and implementation into the framework.

    Task 4: Preparation of guidelines for Involuntary Resettlement and Benefit-sharing for Hydroelectric Power Projects.

    a.    Guidelines for Involuntary Resettlement (resettlement and rehabilitation policy and action plan)

    b.    Guidelines for benefit-sharing

    Task 5: Provision of Technical Support to the DoED as it carries out its regulatory requirement for compliance supervision and monitoring of the implementation of the PDA, EMP, and SAP of the KAHEP.