An Analysis of EIA Report of the Second International Airport Project, Nepal

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a planning tool which enables decision makers to accept environmentally friendly projects and reject environment damaging projects or their certain components. EIA has been mandatory in Nepal since the enactment of Environment Protection Act in 1997. Usually in Nepal, EIA is done for a project late in the project cycle after many important decisions on design and locations have already been made. While in case of government sponsored projects, EIA has remained as ‘pro forma’ compliance with government’s legal requirements. This paper analyses outputs of approved EIA of a mega infrastructure project “Second International Airport Project” which government wants to implement despite of protests by conservationists, and environmental and social activists. There are technocratic problems in EIA Report such as informational weaknesses, insufficient analysis of impacts, and inadequately proposed mitigations measures. It indicates political influence on EIA. This paper suggests making policy decision on size and nature of an international airport and its facilities, alternative locations avoiding ecologically sensitive area, and source of funding. It proposes to conduct a comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) complying with national and international environmental and social safeguards, before making any decision to fell trees.

Engineering Geological and Geotechnical Approaches for the Construction of Powerhouse Cavern of Tehri Pumped Storage Plant (1000 MW) - A Case Study

Construction of underground Cavern in the Himalayan region is full of challenges and uncertainties. Experience has shown that construction in Himalayan regions requires good understanding of geology, adequate site investigations, proper design and selection of suitable construction methodology and technology. The most commonly encountered geological problems during excavation of underground structure in Hydroelectric Projects are, Fault/Thrust/Shear Zones squeezing and swelling, wedge block failure etc. Tehri Pumped Storage Plant (PSP) is located at the left bank of river Bhagirathi in the state of Uttarakhand in Northern India. This case study indicates about the geological challenges faced and their remedial measures during the construction of Tehri PSP Powerhouse Cavern having dimension of 203m x 24m x 58m.3D-geological mapping with 1:100 scales was carried out in excavated central drift of powerhouse to evaluate the rock composition, behavior of rock mass, structural features and further investigation to finalize the layout and orientation. During the investigation Sheared Phyllite with bands of thinly Phyllite Quartzite rock were encountered in the end portion of central drift of powerhouse which had posed a mammoth challenge in designing the powerhouse cavern. Keeping in view the recommendations of geotechnical experts and the design consultants, decision were made to shift the cavern further by 50 m to avoid Sheared Phyllite bands. The shifting of cavern led to the reorientation of structures like control room, service bay and location of units etc. This paper briefly describes the Engineering Geological and Geotechnical set up of powerhouse with proper investigation approaches and excavation sequences highlighting the importance of orientation and Sheared Phyllite Zone.

How Does the Law and Policy Encourage Towards a Low Carbon Energy Transition in the Scotland?

This article contains a doctrinal analysis of the law and policy encouragement towards a low carbon energy transition in the Scotland. To do this, the present article is primarily focused on electricity sector of the Scotland and its commitment towards a low carbon transition in this sector in coming years. This article analyzes the existing significant laws and policies in Scotland that encourage towards a low carbon transition. However, it also evaluates international obligation upon the Scotland and the UK, as well, towards this transition. Subsequently, it assesses the UK’s legal framework in this regard. However, Scotland is firmly committed to achieve its targets towards a low carbon transition in the power sector although it needs more incentive and tight observation of the government to smoothen the process.

Heavy Metal Assessment of Kavre Valley Basin River System

Recent population growth, industrialization and unplanned urbanization have led to an increase in untreated waste disposal directly to the river system, including heavy metals. The present investigation was conducted for assessment of heavy metals in the Kavre valley river basin system. Through this basin, two major rivers Punyamata and Roshi along with their tributaries, flow passing through cities (Banepa, Shree Khandapur and Panauti) and the heavy metals selected were Iron (Fe), Chromium (Cr), Manganese (Mn), Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn) and Cadmium (Cd). Seven sites were selected on the basis of city size and meeting point of tributaries. Fe, Cr and Mn were examined using UV-spectrophotometry whereas Pb, Zn and Cd were determined using AAS. The highest concentration of Cr, Mn, Fe, Cd, Zn, Pb were determined to be 1.9 μg/L, 22.6 μg/L, 514 μg/L, 340 μg/L, 20 μg/L, 80 μg/L, respectively, with Fe, Cd and Pb exceeding the WHO limits.

Reflections on India’s 2018 Guidelines on Cross Border Electricity Trading Vis-a-vis SAARC versus ASEAN

Despite the 2014 Indo-Nepal Electric Power Trade Agreement and the 2014 SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation (Electricity), India issued two Guidelines within two years, one in 2016 and the other in 2018. After discussing the genesis of these two Guidelines, the author attempts to analyze the 2018 Guidelines. With India citing electricity trade as “issues of strategic, national and economic importance”, that was couched into “issues of international relations” in the 2018 Guidelines, this explains why the SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation (Electricity) has made no headway at all in the last four years. The SAARC region, home of Buddha, Ashok, Akbar etc. may, perhaps, have to look east to the ASEAN on how electricity trading is done there. Electricity, besides being a strategic tool, is also an economic tool that should be used to uplift the quality of life of hundreds of millions of South Asians mired in deep poverty. Unless India takes the initiative akin to ASEAN, SAARC citizens will continue to wallow in that poverty!

Indoor Air Quality Investigation at Primary Classrooms in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India

Two schools in Hamirpur (Himachal Pradesh, India) having hybrid ventilation (ceiling fan) were selected for indoor and outdoor air quality investigation. Investigated parameters include temperature, relative humidity, CO2, and PM2.5 for both indoor and outdoor air quality. The average concentrations of CO2, and PM2.5 are estimated for indoor and outdoor air quality. Result shows that adopted building performance is not good in comparison with designed ones. The indoor concentrations of various pollutants are found to be higher in comparison with outdoor, so there is an urgent need to reduce the levels of pollutants inside the primary classrooms.

Rampant Development of Water Diversion Projects as a Threat to Fish Diversity: A Case of the Modi Khola

The current focus of the country in meeting the increasing demands for energy has led to the increase in number of river water diversion projects for hydropower generation. But the lack of proper guidelines and monitoring mechanism has resulted in rampant licensing of hydropower projects. There are no rules for determining the appropriate number of water diversion projects in a single river. By discussing the case of rampant water diversion projects in the Modi Khola, of western Nepal, this paper raises an important issue of environmental feasibility of projects in the context where, only the engineering and economic feasibility of a project is taken as the basis for project approval and implementation.

Evaluation on the TBM Performance at a Hydropower Project in Ecuador

The aim of this manuscript is to discuss the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) performance along the recently constructed headrace tunnel of Minas-San Francisco Hydropower Project in Ecuador. Firstly, the manuscript briefly describes the importance of TBM tunneling and about the Minas-San HPP. Further, discussions are made on the engineering geological conditions along the headrace tunnel. Detailed evaluations are made on the performance of TBM tunneling considering influence of rock mass quality on the TBM penetration rate. The manuscript emphasizes that the knowledge of the rock mass quality parameters and cutter technology available at present are among the key factors that influence the estimation of the net penetration rate of the TBM. It has been demonstrated that the hard to very hard rock masses of high abrasivity that were encountered along the headrace tunnel alignment caused very low penetration giving slow progress, which was not predicted during planning phase design. The authors investigated a fairly good link between TBM penetration and the mechanical strength of the rock mass.

Vulnerability Analysis to Prioritize the Reconstruction of Earthquake Affected Drinking Water Systems

In 2015, two massive earthquakes occurred in the central region of Nepal, killing more than 8000 people. The disaster destroyed many houses and public infrastructures and severely affected 14 districts in the central region of Nepal. Most of the affected people were disconnected from basic services such as safe drinking water. Being a basic human need, essential to live a healthy life, drinking water scheme rehabilitation project was initiated by many non-governmental agencies in coordination with the Government of Nepal (GoN). However, due to the limitation of the funds and time, most of the implementing agencies faced problems to prioritize schemes and the communities, which at first needed to focus to reinstate. Therefore, a vulnerable ranking method was adopted to distinguish the priorities to reconstruct damaged and totally destroyed water schemes in Dhading, Gorkha, Nuwakot, and Rasuwa districts of Nepal, which are the districts in the most earthquake affected region. In the process of vulnerability ranking, three major community level parameters and indicators were considered for the ranking. 1) Number of households without safe drinking water after an earthquake, 2) Number of households without improved sanitation after an earthquake, and 3) Disadvantage Group (DAG) ranking of the Village Development Committees (VDCs) of the districts. This process of ranking using community level parameters technique is able to substantiate a justice scientifically in front of the communities, government, donor, and other stakeholders in the selection of VDCs to rehabilitate the drinking water schemes.

Role of Reliability Analysis in Structural Design

Modern structures require more critical and complex designs; the need for accurate and efficient approaches to assess uncertainties in loads, geometry, material properties, manufacturing processes involved and also the operational environment, has increased significantly. Reliability assessment techniques help to develop the initial guidance for robust designs. In this context, the classical methods such as theory of probability, statistical methods and reliability analysis methods are often used by structural engineers. Some of the methods which have been developed in the later stages include Monte Carlo Sampling, Latin Hyper Cube Sampling, First and Second Order Reliability Methods, Stochastic Finite Element Method and Stochastic Optimization. In addition, in those structural problems where randomness is relatively small, a deterministic model is usually used rather than a Stochastic Model. However, when the level of uncertainty is high, Stochastic approaches are necessary for system analysis and design. Number of probabilistic analysis tools have been developed to qualify uncertainties, but the most complex systems are still designed with simplified rules and schemes, such as factor of safety based designs. However, these traditional design processes do not directly account for the random nature of the most input parameters. Factor of safety is used to maintain some degree of safety in the structural design. Generally, the factor of safety is understood to be the ratio of the expected strength of response to the expected load. In practice, both the strength and load are variables, the values of which are scattered about their respective mean values. When the scatter of the variables is considered, the factor of safety could potentially be less than unity and the traditional factor of safety based design would fail. More likely is that the factor of safety is too conservative, which leads to an over expensive design.