Twelfth Talk Program

The Twelfth Talk Program of INPIM Nepal was organized on 27th March 2015 in the Department of Irrigation (DOI) main hall, Jawalakhel, Lalitpur.Considering the relevance and importance of the topic, the topic for this time was selected as “Clean Technologies for Irrigation Water Lifting in Nepal: Options and Experiences”.

At the onset of the program, Mr. Bashu Dev Lohanee, General Secretary of INPIM-Nepal, gave a general introduction to the topic and mentioned about recent developments and available options of Clean Technologies for Irrigation Water Lifting and their introduction and experiences in Nepal.

Three topics covering three different clean technologies used for lifting irrigation water was presented in the talk program. The topics were as follows:

  • Cases of Community Participation for Hydram Integrated Micro Irrigation System
  • IDE’s Experiences with Solar Pumps for Irrigation in Nepal
  • Experiences of Installation of Barsha Pump for Irrigation Purposes in Nepal

The first presentation was made by Mr. Niraj Shrestha, Environmental Engineer from Center for Rural Technology (CRT Nepal). In his presentation, Shrestha explained the functioning of the hydraulic ram (Hydram) and described how CRT Nepal got involved in the project since 2009. He also cited that Hydram lifts 10% of the water drawn from the source and that the efficiency of the system varies from 50 to 80%. He also described the different components of hydram.

The second presentation was by Mr. Raj Kumar GC, Program Director of International Development Enterprises (iDE). Mr. GC began his presentation by explaining the design approach of iDE for Multiple Use System (MUS). He cited that over the last 15 years iDE has developed 256 MUS serving about 50,000 in 30 districts including lift MUS i.e. grid and solar.

Similarly, the third and final presentation was by Mr. Pratap Thapa, Commercial and Financial Director of aQysta, Delft, the Netherlands. Mr. Thapa gave a brief introduction of the Barsha Pump explaining that it functions with zero emission, zero operating cost and virtually no maintenance and claimed that it can deliver a head of up to 20m and output flow of 40,000lt/s and can irrigate a land up to 2ha. He also briefed about the experiences gained from the demonstration in Nepal. The first pilot project in Andhi Khola River, Syangja Haritjyoti Organic Farm in which 5 micro-sprinkle pumps could be operated simultaneously over a total head of 14m and flow rate of 0.5 l/s for vegetable cultivation.

The system was inaugurated by the Director of Western Regional Agriculture Directorate on the occasion of World Water Day.

The second pilot project was in Bagmati River at Dukuchhap, Lalitpur where more than 500 Ropani area originally being irrigated by carrying water in pots to irrigate tomatoes is receiving water through pump.

At the end of the talk program, the participants actively participated in the question/ answer session. They raised many questions like: Which irrigation infrastructures are more effective? How can the shift from traditional irrigation systems to modernized/ pressurized systems take place? The presenters responded these queries one by one to the satisfaction of the participants of the talk program.

 

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