Kathmandu: Nepal is set to receive a grant assistance of around Rs five billion to reduce the level of water in four glacial lakes at risk in the country.
The 42nd board meeting of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) held in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, on Tuesday approved the project titled ‘Protecting livelihood and assets at risk from glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and climate change-induced flooding in glacial river basins of Nepal’.
Dr Sindhu Prasad Dhungana, an alternate board member of the GCF on behalf of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), confirmed that the project will receive a grant of US $ 36.2 million, or around 5 billion rupees, from the Green Climate Fund.
Similarly, the Government of Nepal, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal have committed to co-investing 13.8 million US dollars in this project. This project was submitted by UNDP as an accredited body of the Fund on behalf of the Government of Nepal.
UNDP Country Representative in Nepal Kyoko Yokosuka said the seven-year project will be implemented in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme under the leadership of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. “It will directly benefit about 2.2 million people living in the Koshi and Gandaki river basins systems, as it will help reduce the level of water in four high-risk glacial lakes, expand early warning systems, conserve more than 150 hectares of riverbanks through natural means, including afforestation, and enhance disaster preparedness and climate resilience,” she said.
It may be noted in a similar joint initiative, Nepal had previously successfully averted a potential disaster by reducing the water level of Imja Lake in Solukhumbu by 3.4 meters in a controlled manner.
Kamal Ram Joshi, Director General of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, said that the GCF grant will help in risk management as reports says that 21 glacial lakes in Nepal could burst at any time and cause major damaged.
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