CONTENTS
LIST OF ACRONYMS
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
1
CHAPTER 2
Engagement with Modern Technology
4
CHAPTER 3
Modern Education in Nepal
7
CHAPTER 4
Insights and Lessons
13
CHAPTER 5
Reconceptualisng Water Education
18
CHAPTER 6
A New Curriculam for Water Education
20
CHAPTER 7
Construction Engagement
23
NOTES
25
REFERENCES
27
ANNEX 1
30
ANNEX 2
77
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CHAPTER – 1
INTRODUCTION
From the Himalayas to the Ganga plains, and from the Aravalis to the hard-rock region of South
India, water resources in South Asia are currently facing the stress of change. The result is not only
that water is degraded, but that the sustenance base and livelihood of communities are threatened.
Despite the heavy investments made in water resource development in the past problems like
depleted groundwater, polluted water sources, poor access to drinking water, unreliable irrigation,
and lack of access to energy are pervasive. Many groups -- local, regional, national and international - are working on various issues related to water management. At the local level, regional and national
levels, the focus is project implementation. The issues at the international levels are related to
advocacy, inter-state and international relations, and understanding the dynamics of ongoing
changes within which water features is a key element. These groups are very poorly linked
conceptually, and their scope is highly fragmented. In addition, the entrenched disputes are rife.
Rivers in South Asia are simultaneously a boon and a bane. Water sources are the basis of
sustenance and community livelihood, but in the monsoon, for example, the rivers overflowing their
banks lead to disasters, which disproportionately affect the poor families. The fast pace of change,
the region is experiencing has lead to a new type of stresses as governments are unable to provide
even the basic level of services. Large numbers of rural people migrate to urban regions where the
condition is not different, as pollution of groundwater and rivers is widespread. It is against this
backdrop, where the inherent capabilities of both the natural and social systems are highly variable,
the development needs and aspirations of the people have to be defined and managed. Nowhere is
this challenge more complex than in Nepal.
Like the geological and atmospheric processes that have gouged Nepal’s landscape and given it its
unique topographical features, a mix of historical encounters has shaped the country’s human
mosaic. In the short horizontal distance of a few kilometres, the climate changes from tropical to
subtropical and on to temperate and alpine and even arctic. Matching this diversity are the people
and communities who live in the different ecological niches. Along a typical river valley of Nepal are
found villages with different ethnic compositions and languages. Each element of the mosaic has its
own aspirations for the future and perception of security needs. The challenges is succinctly
encapsulated by Gyawali (2002):
“In this flux, the basic social unit, which has withstood the stress of change is the family with its
larger clan: almost all interactions of individuals revolve around this unit and its collective decisions.
The nation-state is a much younger institution that does not quite command the same uniform
loyalty as clan based intermediary institution. The market is even younger institution than the state:
but because it often caters to the comfort of the family better than the does a rapacious, rent-seeking
government is preferred. In this milieu, the nature of homogenising technology militates against the
nature of diversified society.” The author argues that large-scale water development approach
promoted by the centralised state will demand more homogeneity and allegiance to the state from its
people. In its current top down approach unfortunately, the state does not meet the individual and
community aspiration of security for the future.
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In Nepal, the first interventions for water development technology were undertaken brought by
fuedal rulers and since then promoted by single-mission bureaucracies such as the Irrigation
Department or the Water Resources Ministry. These agencies are an offshoot of the water
development model of colonial India in the nineteenth century and western United States in the
early twentieth century and as such are hardware-oriented and centralised. Such an approach
assumes that people every where are the same, behave in only one style and have uniform needs.
At the heart of this approach is a single, often unquestioned, set of assumption about human needs
and wants: the rational utility-maximising individual. This leads to two important and widely relied
upon principles espoused by the paradigm. The top down is the only approach applicable and that
micro level can be handled by the concept of per-capita (or per individual). This therefore implies
that totality is the aggregation of the homogenised micro-level responses and vice versa.i Past
experience suggests that such concepts do not capture the diversity as far as access to water and the
services it provides are concerned.
Worse, hierarchical, technologically oriented organisations have in-built institutional mechanisms
that filter out the primary concern of good science — conceived as the quest for truth. Water
resource development has put the technological tools first, rather than the people first.
Consequently, such hardware-guided approach relegates the social and environmental concerns to
"externalised costs". In the face of this reactive encounter with modernisation, Nepal’s social
systems are undergoing rapid transmutation and experiencing high level of stress as the state
continues to fail as an institutional resource. One indication of the failure of the approach is the
Maoist insurgency and the recent clamping on of a state of emergency in the wake of violent
insurrection.
Why the plural polity that came into being after 1990 is unable to provide political vent to the sense
of dissatisfaction in Nepal is a question that needs much deeper analysis than is possible here. Yet,
surely one strand of the complexly interwoven explanation is related to the inability of most political
parties and the government they represent to conceive accurately the complexity of water
development. At the very least, in conceiving water development, the nature of heterogeneous
mosaic is not recognised to make the more inclusive state than in the past by building intermediaries.
Thus the concerns of equity, social justice and inclusiveness central to the aspirations of the
country’s social mosaic are not fostered beyond rhetoric. Almost all-political parties, irrespective of
their ideological leaning, assumed and continue to believe that water development (read “electricity
development”) would be achieved using a hierarchical model. Politicians naively expect that this
objective would be achieved by first building a large-scale water project and then exporting the
generated power to earn revenue for the government.ii Such simplistic thinking has failed to realise
that technological tools come with their social carriers. That unleashing a new technology in a sociosystem as unprepared as is present-day Nepal, results in prosperity for its carriers but marginalises
the unprepared. The proponents of the hierarchic mode trapped into technological entrenchment
gradually face de-legitimisation on the political front as they fail to deliver even the most basic of
services. Thus, what is perceived as a mere technological change has profound social and political
implications.
The hierarchical paradigm of water development not only reflects how bureaucratic the Nepali
government is, but it has also shaped the nature of country’s engineering education. The educational
approach is, in fact, guided by events in colonial India. Both water development strategies and
education practices reflect the colonial legacy on a country that was never under direct colonial rule.
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Each approach sustains the other: the knowledge stream that the education system produces finds
entry into the technological model, while its outcomes finds easy entry into the educational process.
Instead of playing a key role in the processes of enquiry and contestation, educational institutions
perpetuate the status quo, and this produce graduates unresponsive to the complex needs of social
and natural heterogeneity. Understanding the emerging challenges for the development and
management of water requires continuous research into and exploration of a complex and interlinked system consisting of diverse natural, social, cultural and political constituents. Understanding
this is a prerequisite for achieving better distributive justice for the impoverished and the asset poor
in terms of access to water, and the services it provides at the family level.iii
Five decades of planned development, executed largely within the rubric of foreign aid, and
designing with water as a key resource to achieving development, has brought few changes. Despite
the heavy influx of resources and technology, the country is unable to cope with the challenges of
self-governance. This struggle is due to the nation's inability to conceptualise development
objectives in consonance with the social and physical contexts. Instead, it tends to replicate political
and technological ideology from Europe. The fault among others, lies in the absence of a scientific
and technological culture, which were not inculcated because of Nepal’s deeply entrenched rigid
social structure that did not allow any light of reform.iv Water education is deeply embedded within
this structural straightjacket and unable to respond to the actual needs of the society.
This study attempts to assess higher education in Nepal with a specific focus on water education in
the technical sector. An analysis of the evolution of the modern education is accomplished using
social historical perspective. The study is undertaken under the purview of criteria set by SACI water
for the review of water education in South Asian countries. The goals of SACI water’s collaborative
efforts include assessments of the education programs, and their disciplinary orientation and scope
of curricula; quality of teaching, types of jobs that graduates in water resource education have gone
into over the last decade, the need and demand for integrated and interdisciplinary skills in water
resource management; and government policies on water resource development.
The study offers a qualitative analysis of the evolution of the water education sector. The report
presents an analysis of the current status of Nepal's water education programmes with respect to
their adequacy in responding to the water-related problems. It also presents suggestions and
recommendations for facilitating changes in the higher education system in the field of water
resource development. The paper first provides the historical context of the entry of modern
technology into Nepal. The next section provides an overview of Nepal's education policy,
particularly after the political changes of 1950. A summary of the review of water-related education
in the country is the discussed next. Finally, a way forward in response to the policy issues related to
water education is presented.
The paper is primarily based on a review of the available curricula and syllabi, which include the
Bachelor's and Master's degree programs from Nepal's four universities, namely, Tribhuvan,
Kathmandu, Pokhara and Eastern. Topics related to water, water science, water management and its
applications, and the number of credits allocated to have been identified and tabulated in Annex 2.
Discussions with experts and notable persons engaged in various professional disciplines are another
major sources. In addition, several students, mostly of engineering disciplines, were interviewed to
identity their views, expectations and experiences. Leading people from various agencies engaged in
water management, water education and water projects at the government, university and private
levels were interviewed for their perspectives on the status of water education and its effectiveness
in modern Nepal. A list of the interviewees is included in Annex 3.
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CHAPTER - 2
ENGAGEMENT WITH MODERN TECHNOLOGY
Nepal did not lag behind other South Asian countries in introducing European technology. Modern
technology for water use and development was introduced in Nepal in the late 1880's in the form of
a water supply system whose construction was supervised by a British engineer. In 1848, the Rana
prime minister Jang Bahadur had brought a water pump from England, but it was not used because
no local hand to operate the system could be found and no foreigner could be employed for the
purpose (Landon, 1993). The next system built in 1911 was the 500-kW Pharping hydropower plant.
Both the hydropower and water supply systems were meant to serve the palaces of Ranas. In 1920,
two British engineers working in United Province were invited to build the country's first
hierarchical irrigation system in the Trijuga River.v The system, which irrigated lands in Saptari
District of East Nepal, was completed in 1928. Its approach shaped both the technology and
organisational character of the country's irrigation development as it came with the institutional
baggage of the North Ganga Irrigation model. The fact that farmer-built and-managed systems
already dotted the country's landscape and provided irrigation to the bulk of the area was an
intellectual blind spot.
The irrigation system built in eastern Nepal was a response to the commercialisation of agriculture in
parts of North India and to the opening of a market for cash crops. The system was built primarily
to irrigate land, and thus augment the production of birta land (land grants), although very little
benefit percolated to the grass roots.vi In 1927, a railroad was built to connect Raxaul with
Amalekhjung. Earlier a ropeway had been built to link Kathmandu with Hetauda. Another small
ropeway linked Matatirtha in Kathmandu with the city centre. These transportation systems were
employed to ferry materials for the construction of Rana palaces. British engineers in Calcutta were
invited to design, install and supervise the construction of both ropeways.
The pursuit of ostentation and consumption rather than the enhancement of the production
function of society guided the Ranas who were the original social carriers of technology in Nepal. As
a result, the Western notion of science and knowledge prevailed and tended to marginalise
indigenous knowledge systems. In addition, no effort was made to create the necessary social
carriers for successfully operating the new technology. The assumption on the part of the Ranas,
which continues even today, was that the social and institutional capacity for adapting or adopting
the imported technology existed within. This, however, was not true. As a result, despite the arrival
of western technology the requisite social capacity for using it effectively was not created.
Furthermore, the country remained totally isolated from the cross-fertilization of ideas and the
knowledge gathering, which prevailed during the industrial changes in Europe.
The House of Gurkhas, despite being beset by instability, continued expanding territorially after
Prithi Narayan Shah started his campaign to unify Nepal in 1744. The Gorkhali kings came into
direct conflict with another expanding power, the British East India Company. They fought many
battles until General Octorloney succeeded in paving the way for the imminent capture of the
capital, Kathmandu. After the Gorkhali army was defeated and the durbar succumbed, the treaty of
Sugauli was signed in 1816. Subsequent relation between British raj with the durbar was guided by
three concerns: political support for the raj, trade and recruiting the hill people in the British army.
The latter support was evident at times like the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, which was crushed with the
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help of the Gorkhali army.vii In terms of trade, Britain granted Nepal the right to free and
unrestricted import of goods, including arms, ammunition, machines and industrial equipment. After
the Sepoy Mutiny relations between the Nepali durbar and the East India Company improved
further. The close relations between Britain and the ruling families of the country meant that the
Ranas began imitating the Western lifestyle of pomp and consumption. In this social and political
milieu, modern technology arrived in the country for reasons other than what it is primarily meant to
do: enhance the production process and yield profit for its carriers.
Owing to the wider exigencies of its status as the coloniser of India, and particularly to Jang
Bahadur's aid in breaking the Lucknow Siege during the Mutiny, Britain guaranteed the Ranas
independence and the freedom to purse whatever internal policy they chose. The British residents in
Kathmandu used their influence in certain policies of the Rana Shogunate but they left Rana
freedom to do what ever they chose internally expecting that such a strategy would help the young
kingdom stabilise. In India, in contrast, colonial rule was much more intrusive and direct, as the
Colonial Education Policy, irrigation development practices and the enactment of the Permanent
Settlement Act show. The latter led to fundamental changes in land administration in India.
Irrigation development, guided though it was by revenue generating incentives, created a basis for
the development of empirical hydraulics, which became the basis of engineering education, and
gradually the foundation of the present knowledge base. In regions that were geographically
favourable Indian irrigation systems produced surplus revenue to serve colonial needs.viii
Scientific and institutional innovations were in tune with the colonial education policy, which aimed
to create a breed of locals reconcile to the values and thinking of what the state promoted. When
colonel Probey Cautley began work on the Upper Ganga Canal (UGC), knowledge about canal
hydraulics in alluvial reaches did not exist. Also the canals had to negotiate the flashy rivers that
drained the Siwalik range and aligning canals had posed major difficulties.ix The challenge was
overcome by building siphons and aqueducts, one of which was the Solani aqueduct. The siphons
and aqueduct are indeed the examples of the successful innovation introduced by British engineers
of that time. Building aqueducts, however, was not a totally a new concept since technical skill and
expertise in constructing aqueducts had already been developed in Britain.x
One year before Governor General Lord Dalhousie approved the building of UGC and the
Bhimgoda barrage in 1848, Thomason College of Engineering was established at Roorkee.xi The
objective of the college was to train the necessary engineering manpower needed to help build the
canal works. The college also educated Nepal’s first engineers, Kumar Narsing Rana and Kishore
Narsing Rana involved in the design of Patan’s water supply system completed in 1905 and Pharping
Hydropower plant. Several decades later Nepal sent about 250 students to Roorkee University to be
trained as engineers; they were then expected to work on the 10,800 MW Karnali project. Since the
project did not materialise, most of the graduates began working for the government, which is the
employer of the majority of the nation’s educated engineers. The government thus remains the
social carrier of the conventional paradigm for water development, and container of the particular
technology.
The irrigation canals in North India became working models for British engineers who studied canal
hydraulics and developed new methods of designing canals in alluvial reaches. In fact, the knowledge
system that evolved during the construction of the Sarada Canal System completed in 1928 became
the model for developing irrigated agriculture in Egypt, western United States and Australia.xii These
same techniques and approaches came to the northern mountainous environment of Nepal without
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any questioning or adaptation. This was to be expected because the executive engineer of United
Province brought the model to Nepal when he was asked to build the Chandra Irrigation Canal. At
that time many British residents in Nepal were connoisseurs of the local culture, art and natural
beauty and had produced scholarly works on the people, society, history and even botany of the
country, but they did not contribute to empirical science in the Himalayan region. The British did
not seem to accord much attention to the unique character of Himalayan water or try to study and
understand it.
The British policy of leaving the Rana rulers of Nepal free to pursue the policies they chose left
Nepal in a time warp. This disengagement also hindered the emergence of both a scientific culture
and social carriers of technology and consequently constrained the development of the social
capacity for the successful management of technology. The Ranas' rule consolidated the
centralization of an administration geared towards extracting revenue from the land. The bulk of the
revenue thus generated was transferred outside the country, to be invested in real estate or
commerce or to deposit in banks in British India. It was not invested within the country to diversify
its predominantly subsistence agriculture-based economy. Under Rana rule, there was no possibility
of a mercantile class emerging to function as carriers of modern technology, including that
associated with water development and use. In Europe, it was the mercantile class, through the
promotion of joint stock companies that created the basis of an industrial empire. Under the Ranas
however, the Nepali State only attempted to replicate the model of organisation created in colonial
India. Since the society did not focus on creating social carriers, its success in using modern
technology to achieve water security has been limited. The culture of scientific quest and enquiry
was stunted- a condition which still prevails and remains unaddressed despite the country's
perceived march to prosperity.
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CHAPTER- 3
MODERN EDUCATION IN NEPAL
As its engagement with the colonial state in India increased, Nepal could not remain isolated from
its modernising propensities. Thus, gradually the modern education system was ushered in during
the Rana regime to replace the traditional pattern. In 1901 prime minister Dev Shamsher proclaimed
a system of universal instruction, but he was in power for too short a time to see that provision of
resources and organisations necessary to move his proposal forward were put in place. Dev Samsher
also wanted to send students Europe and America for their further education but the council
(bhardari sabha) suggested that it would be better to solicit the help of experts in India. The latter
policy was adopted, and Nepali youths were sent to India for higher education. xiii In 1902, the Rana
regime allowed the children of a few aristocrat families permission to travel to Japan to receive
higher education.
Rana Prime Minister Chandra Sumsher established Tri-Chandra College (TC) in Kathmandu in
1918. The establishment of the college was another step toward developing the country’s higher
education facilities. Though the purpose behind opening the college was not to educate the general
public, TC played a role in creating an educational environment among ruling families and their
associates (Skerry et. al., 1991). In fact, Chandra Sumshere was ambivalent and after he came back
from inaugurating the college remarked that by doing so he had dug the grave of his dynasty. xiv Only
students who passed secondary school examinations from Indian schools in Patna and Benaras were
admitted to TC. This was because the school leaving certificate examination was launched only
during mid thirties, so students matriculated from Indian schools.
The development of higher education gained momentum after Nepal entered its first democratic era
in 1951. In 1952, Nepal had only two colleges but three years later, the number had increased to 14;
a total of 915 students and 86 teachers attended (Skerry et. al., 1991). These colleges offered classes
for certificate level proficiency in affiliation with various universities in India. A major breakthrough
was made in 1953 when the Education Committee was formed; it stressed the need to formulate a
national plan for introducing changes in national education. Acting upon this suggestion, His
Majesty's Government (HMG) constituted the National Education Planning Commission in 1955.
United States Operation Mission (USOM), which was latter renamed United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), then a major development partner of Nepal, began providing
education and training to Nepali graduates at universities in the United States. The first batch of
trained Nepalis was supposed to work as part of an in-country teacher's training program upon their
return, and indeed, within a few weeks of their returning, they had established the College of
Education in Kathmandu. The college was the first to run Bachelor’s in Education and Master’s in
Education degree programs in the country. Backed by USOM, the initiative to establish a university
began. Following the recommendation of the National Education Planning Commission, Tribhuvan
University (TU) was established in 1959. Before this, colleges accredited their degrees through
Indian universities.
The major purpose of establishing TU was to meet Nepal's requirements for skilled human
resources. USOM, India, the Ford Foundation, Britain and the United Nations participated in
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planning the university. The original plan for a unified system of higher education was based on the
American model of autonomous universities, but since India was disturbed by USOM's influence,
especially on politically sensitive higher educationxv, the Commission discarded this proposal in
favour of the Indian model of central accreditation. USOM's role in the development of a national
university was thus substantially diminished.
The University Commission accepted the service of an American architect to design nine university
buildings in a one-year assignment. HMG also accepted a grant from the United States Government
for the construction of new buildings for the College of Education and the Laboratory School in
Kathmandu, both were located on the TU compound at Kirtipur. In addition, USOM assisted in
establishing TU's Central Library, giving it a total of 15,000 books and setting up the University
Press. USOM later contributed to the development of Public Science College through a teachertraining program thus playing a lead role in initiating an organised system of in-country teachers'
training. The establishment of the College of Education was a part of institutionalising the process
of human resource development in the country. The U.S., however, lost its interest in supporting
Nepal's education system when the Panchayat system introduced in the early 1960s favoured a
centralised system of education instead of the decentralised system proposed by USOM (Skerry et.
al., 1991).
A year after the political changes of 1960, a Comprehensive Education Committee was formed. It
was followed in 1962 by the visit of a team under the leadership of Dr. Hugh B. Wood at the request
of His Majesty's Government and in cooperation with the UNESCO to improve upon the education
system. After a gap of almost a decade, a significant move was made in 1971, when the National
Education System Plan (NESP) was enforced throughout the country. Its stated objective was to
bring about revolutionary changes in the educational sector, particularly in the production of trained
manpower. A review done in 1992 has suggested that the real purpose of the plan was to foster faith
in the newly introduced political system.xvi
About eight years after NESP was enforced, came the students' movement of 1979, which led to
referendum of 1980 in which the people voted their approval of the reformed Panchayat polity. A
few years later, the Royal Higher Education Commission, appointed in 1981 reviewed the basic
features of the National Education System. In the course of implementing the recommendations in
the report, which came out in 1982, the Mahendra Sanskrit University was established, various
institutes were given the name “Faculties”, and other minor changes were introduced. During this
period the tendency to centralise the administration of TU became more pronounced and the
academic atmosphere continued to be politicised. This was not unexpected because in the absence
of political plurality defeated by a slight margin in the 1980 referendum, the university system
became a terrain for party-based politics.
After the political change of 1990, the new government constituted National Education
Commission (NEC) in 1992. The commission's objectives were to give a new direction to the
education system in the changed context of the country following restoration of multiparty
democracy. The commission’s report suggested that the country’s educational structure is still
dependent on the broad outlines that NESP of 1971 had shaped. Owing to some of its ill-conceived
and unpractical goals, some of its basic policies had to be altered during the implementation period
itself. The outcome has been a conception of TU as a conglomeration of various institutes, with a
centralised administration. The subsequent national plans, despite their stated idealistic aims and
policies, have failed to facilitate the decentralisation conducive to the development of vibrant and
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productive educational approach. The unfortunate part is that even after twelve years of democracy,
the quality of national education continues to slide down.xvii
Nepal's history of higher scientific and technical education is also recent. TC offered intermediate
science classes in 1919, but B.Sc. and M.Sc. classes began later, in 1947 and 1967 respectively. In the
wake of the promulgation of the NESP, various educational programmes overseen by different
agencies of the government were brought under a centralised rubric. The production of low-and
medium-level manpower in agriculture and animal science, medicine, forestry and engineering
subjects was started under the aegis of TU. Emphasis was placed on the development of institutes
specialising in different areas as part of the effort to prepare the manpower required for national
development. In the absence of a well-founded science education policy at the national level, science
education was sometimes placed under general education and sometimes under technical education.
Although, for this reason, science education did not rate as much progress as it should, its
importance had, at long last, been recognised. Technical education was installed as an integral part of
the country's education.
In 1959, the Engineering School established in 1942 was transformed to Nepal Engineering College
and began offering civil overseer course. In 1972, the NESP implemented different institutes of
learning and grouped the existing formal centres of engineering education as campuses. Under the
Institute of Engineering (IOE), two campuses – Pulchowk and Thapathali campuses – were
established (Mathe and Shrestha, 1989). After this new policy was introduced, enrolment in
certificate-level (overseers) courses increased substantially. IOE updated its course to diploma level
engineering in 1976 with support from the World Bank. The IOE was twinned with Paisley
Technical College in Glasgow and its staff was sent to Britain and the United States for obtaining
higher-level education. In 1982, the three-years diploma course was upgraded into a full-fledged
Bachelor’s level course. By mid-1980, IOE had a pool of Nepali engineers with specialisation in
hydraulics, water resources, hydrology, irrigation and water supply engineering. The Institute of
Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS) started graduate-level programmes in agriculture since 1976
and in animal science in 1987. Similarly, the Institute of Forestry (IOF) was established in 1981.
Another institute formed under NESP was the Institute of Science and Technology, which regularly
offered the postgraduate courses, and a Ph.D. level programme.
To a limited extent IAAS and IOF deal with the application of basic water science. IAAS’s
Bachelor's degree in agriculture science includes irrigation as one of its core subjects and covers
many issues related to rural sociology, not just technical ones. In this sense the content of the course
on irrigation offered at IAAS is more relevant to the local context. However, it needs to be updated
by incorporating recent insights on the challenges of irrigated agriculture. Water is also taught as a
major subject of civil engineering at IOE. Details about its Bachelor’s and Master’s level courses are
summarised in Annex 1. In 1942, the Engineering School copied the course content of Indian
schools, but when the programme level of IOE was upgraded in 1976, its courses, including those in
water engineering, were also updated. When the IOE was twinned with Paisley College of
Engineering, the faculty of that college suggested the course content, which however, was basically
technology-guided. Subsequently, as the newly trained staff of IOE came back from Britain and U.S.
after receiving higher education they examined the undergraduate courses of other engineering
colleges in the region and revised the Bachelor’s level course in civil engineering. The Tribhuvan
University Council formally approved the revised course in 1987. The course content was revised
again in 1992 when IOE received support from the Canadian International Development Agency
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(CIDA) and the Swiss Development Agency (SDC). The key elements of the two courses are listed
in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1 Comparison of BE level courses on water resources
Course title
Fluid
Mechanics
Taught in
2nd year
Year
1987
2nd year,
1st
semester
1992
3rd year
1987
2nd year,
2nd
semester
1992
Open
channel
hydraulics
3rd year
1987
Engineering
Hydrology
3rd year
1987
3rd year,
2nd
semester
1992
4th year
1987
4th Year,
2nd
semester
1992
Hydraulic
Irrigation
Engineering
Contents
Basic concepts and definitions, Fluid statistics,
Kinematics of flow, dynamic of flow, dimensional
analysis
Introduction, physical properties of liquid, fluid
pressure and its measurement, pressure on submerged
surfaces, equilibrium stability of floating bodies, fluid
kinematics, dynamic of flows, flows through orifices,
momentum and other analysis
Boundary layer theory, flow though pipes, unsteady
flow in pipes, flow past submerged bodies, similitude
and physical modelling,
Flow through pipes, siphons, pipe networks, unsteady
flow in pipes, open channel flow, uniform flow, flow
over notches and weirs, non-uniform flow in open
channel, gradually varied flow, hydraulic jump and its
analysis, flow in mobile boundary channel, similitude
and physical modelling
Introduction and basic concepts, uniform flow,
economic channel section, flow over notches and weirs,
non-uniform flow in open channels, gradually varied
flow, hydraulic jump and its analysis, introduction to
flood routing through reservoirs and channels, flow in
non rigid boundary channels
Introduction, hydrological processes, surface runoffs,
hydrographs, groundwater
Introduction, Meteorological factors in hydrology,
physical hydrology, surface run offs, hydrograph
analysis, statistical hydrology, ground water, hydrology
of floods
Introduction, soil water relationship, canals, design of
canals, canal head works, distribution system, hydraulic
structures for canals, water logging and drainage, flood
control and river training work, case study of irrigation
system in Nepal, case study of irrigation systems of
Nepal
Introduction, soil moisture and crop relationships,
method of applying water in irrigation fields, canals,
design of canals, hydraulic structures, seepage flow,
distribution systems, water logging and drainage, river
control, planning and management of irrigation system
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Water Power
Engineering
Water
Supply
Engineering
Sanitary
Engineering
4th year
1987
4th year,
2nd
semester
1992
3rd year
1987
3rd year,
1st
semester
1992
4th Year
1987
3rd year,
2nd
semester
1992
Introduction, planning and layout of power projects,
dams, spillways, hydraulic machines, case study of
hydropower scheme in Nepal
Introduction, power regulation, planning of
hydropower projects, water retaining structures,
regulating structures, spillways, hydro-electrical
machines
Introduction, sources of water, quantity of water,
quality of water, intake works and pumps, water
treatment, reservoirs and distribution system,
Conveyance of water, valves and fitting, introduction to
rural water supply systems
Introduction, sources of water, quantity of water,
quality of water, intake works, water treatment,
reservoirs and distribution system, conveyance of water,
valves and fittings
Introduction, Quantity of waste water, design and
construction of sewers, sewer Appurtenances,
characteristics and examination of sewage, sewage
disposal, sewage treatment, secondary treatment
processes, sludge treatment, disposal of sludge, disposal
of sewage from isolated buildings, miscellaneous
Introduction, quantity of waste water, characteristics
and examination of sewage, design and construction of
sewers, sewer Appurtenances, sewage disposal, sewage
treatment, sludge treatment and disposal, disposal of
sewage from isolated buildings, solid waste cesspools
and evapotranspiration mounds
Though the courses have been revised twice, the contents are similar and neither introduced
ongoing practices implemented in the country. Limited attempts of incorporating the changes were
made, but without success. One initiative was aimed at introducing a course on community-based
drinking water supply. In the mid-1980s, Coline Glennie, who was then the head of Water and
Sanitation Section at UNICEF, Kathmandu suggested to the British Technical Advisor to the IOE
that the course content of water supply and sanitation include the rural context of Nepal. Glennie
had even prepared and provided a draft curriculum for the purpose but was ignored.xviii During the
same period, the IOE was host to many meetings to discuss rural drinking water and sanitation and
the efforts made during the International Decade of Drinking Water and Sanitation. But these
discussions never found entry into the education stream. In the late seventies, the IOE had also
received financial support from World Health Organisation to train overseers, who were then to
work in the Local Development Department particularly in water supply and sanitation sector .
Despite these activities and linkages, the course content was conventional and technology-guided; it
did not include social or institutional concerns.
Another innovation was attempted after 1990, when the IOE introduced a new course in irrigation.
The course was intended to provide students with country-specific experience of irrigation
management by focussing on farmer built- and -managed systems. Staff of the Department of
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Irrigation who taught the course designed its content. Within three years however, the course went
back to teaching engineering-based irrigation. The course co-ordinator lamented that the initiative
was not able to continue because of the in-built structural limitations.xix These were related to
education establishment, job situation, lack of appropriate teachers and training materials.
The technology-dominated momentum is also a result of the backgrounds of the professionals who
joined government services including education establishment. Till 1985, when students from IOE
began graduating, large proportions of the engineers were trained in Indian regional engineering
colleges (RECs), Indian institute of technology (IITs) and similar establishments. They brought
home the same baggage that was set during the colonial era. A large pool of engineers trained in the
former Soviet Union also returned and joined the government services. Majority of them came back
with training in the model of gigantism versed in what has been defined as the Stalinist approach.xx
Also in mid-1980, graduates trained at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) began returning.
Many of these graduates were trained in water resource engineering, hydrology, irrigation and
watershed management. The AIT was established in the early 1960s to meet the manpower needs of
the developing Asian countries. The American experts who initiated AIT drew on pre-1950
experiences in the United States (Corey, 1992), which was again technology-guided.
After democracy was re-instated in 1990, a more liberal atmosphere was created in Nepal, and
engineering colleges were established in the private sector. The first, Nepal Engineering College
(NEC), was established in 1994. NEC was initially affiliated with TU and later with the newly
established Pokhara University (PU). More private colleges have since been established, but all
follow the course set by the IOE. The basic of the course offered by PU is similar to that offered by
TU. All courses focus on teaching technical tools based on a natural science-led approach. This
approach analyses stocks and flows of water in natural conditions and, identifies alterations in their
state and uses technology to bring about desired changes.
Another important phemnomenon of the 1990’s was the increased level of public discussions on
water issues, which by and large, cover both natural and social science topics and emphasize
assimilation. Coupled with this change is the increasing number of informal trainings on water and
related issues. One such programme is a four-month training on contemporary social issues
conducted by Himal Association, Rato Bangla School and Interdisciplinary Analysts. Mid-level
professionals get the chance to tackle themes such as society and history, and society and
technology. Although water is not a central element of the training, the debates surrounding water
development are explored in depth in the course. A few typical short-term courses include the
following
Table 1.2 Examples of short-term training course on water
Organization
Content of training
Freedeal
Legal anthropology
Nepal Water Conservation Political economy of water; assimilation of water natural
Foundation
and the social sciences in Himalayan region.
Nepal Hydropower Association
Sediment hydrology
Several workshops and seminars have also been organised, but more as a cultural events involving
donor communities, academics, development professionals, and politicians than as scholastic
exercise.
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CHAPTER 4
INSIGHTS AND LESSONS
A review of course contents reveals that technical concerns guide water education. This basis of
technical education, and hence of water education was shaped by the interaction of the Nepali state
with modernising Britain. Its foundation was created as early as the 1940s, and was updated and
extended to a higher level only in the early 1980s. But even at this late stage, and inspite of
recognition of importance of social issues, water education is still technologically guided.
While reviewing water education, the problems and challenges of the water resource sector were
identified by Nepal's Water Resources Strategy (WRS). The document presents an interesting
comparison. The document has listed a range of problems and constraints that afflicts development
of water resources. These issues related to policies, financial and human resources, institutions and
actions needed for sustainable development and management of the resource and are presented in
Table 1.3.
Similar challenges have been identified by the so-called second track initiative, in South Asia. The
Track II initiative is expected to facilitate the processes of governmental negotiation in the complex
and crucial issues of resource development and sharing. xxi The initiatives involved groups from
Nepal, India and Bangladesh. Though the initiative is generally guide by the hubris of supply
augmentation, its recent publication recognises that people do not have access to safe water,
hydrological data is inadequate, and waters use inefficient. xxii The other issues identified are financial
and macro-economic aspects and poor governance seen in terms of interventions that do not
deliver.xxiii Despite the recognition of these issues the onus is on promoting supply based model
tailored after western approach. The content of the curriculum on water does not include anything
that addresses the issues that have been identified as critical by these initiatives.
Table 1.3: Summary of problems and issues
Issues
Water supply
and sanitation
Irrigation
Hydropower
Institutional
Database
Environmental
Problem and challenges
Planning, design and construction of water supply and sanitation projects,
management of urban water supply systems, Poor drinking water quality
Supply-driven approach, Poor performance, dependency syndrome and issues of
sustainability, institutional capacity, linkage of agriculture and irrigation, roles of
WUAs
Power system planning, Increasing access to electrification in rural areas, private
sector involvement, and cost of development
Aspect of planning at central level, fuzzy responsibilities between policy,
implementation, operational and, regulatory institutions, integrated development,
Jurisdictional overlaps and the challenge of maintaining coordination between
the public and local bodies
Inadequate hydro-metrological network, poor funding and management of
existing network, Inadequate flood forecasting and warning systems, Lack of
regulatory mechanism in hydrogeology and geo-seismology sector, Inadequate
geo-seismic data and information
Environment data base and mapping, Integration of environmental
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Social
Legal
International
General
consideration into planning of water resources development, Effective
implementation and enforcement of EIA and SEIA norms and
recommendations, Biodiversity conservation, Surface and ground water
pollution, Lowering of ground water tables, Lack of environmental awareness,
Landslides, erosion, sedimentation, GLOF, flooding, Watershed conservation
Poverty and malnutrition, Balanced gender participation, Appropriate
technology for social groups, Hills to Tarai and rural to urban migration, Project
impact and resettlement
Non-specificity of water rights and ownership, Lack of sub-ordinate enabling
legislation, Lack of harmony among related legislation, Lack of adequate legal
provisions to encourage private sector participation in multipurpose projects
Compliance with the provisions stipulated in Kosi and Gandak agreements,
Implementation of the provisions of the Mahakali Treaty, Formulation of
general legal framework for development of trans-boundary rivers, Absence of
mechanism for institutionalised cooperation between riparian countries
Need for comprehensive water resources policy, Lack of integrated river basin
planning and management
Water pricing and cost recovery, Potential of water transportation - navigation,
Macro-economic implications
Source: HMG/N (2001)
The outcome is thus a disjunction within the terrain of water management and nature of education
does not reflect this reality. No courses introduce any social science or discuss how technical designs
are applied in the field. No other insights about emerging water management challenges are
introduced. For example, the courses do not discuss farmer-managed irrigation systems, or policies
which promote turning over of agency-built schemes to farmer groups for management, or the
increasing stress on irrigation due to pollution.
The course in irrigation offered by IAAS is more encompassing than the civil engineering course. It
incorporates both the social and natural sciences, but could be improved by introducing recent
lessons and insights. IAAS in fact, could provide a basis for revising the irrigation course taught in
civil engineering. Other courses, like Masters level programme in geology and meteorology, teach
about water but only as an addendum and with a technical focus. A Master's level programmes in
the social sciences does include themes like dams, irrigation and hydropower. However, the
treatment is broad and superficial. The lack of an interdisciplinary approach to land, water,
technology and society is a major gap that needs to be bridged.
The introduction of postgraduate programs is making a new beginning. IOE now offers Doctoral,
and Master's level programs in urban planning, structural engineering, environmental engineering
and water resources engineering (Pokharel, 2001). Though the content of the M.Sc. course is guided
by natural science, the research conducted by students as part of their degree includes non-technical
themes. A few sample titles are listed in table 1.4. The M.Sc. civil engineering syllabus is slightly
more encouraging because despite the fact that its content is dominated by natural science the
students have the opportunity of selecting non-technical themes for their theses. This offers window
of opportunity to introduce interdisciplinary perspectives in water education. Private engineering
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colleges like the NEC, which has started a postgraduate course in natural resource management, are
expected to continue the trend.
Table 1.4: Titles of M. Sc. theses submitted at IOE
Environmental Engineering
Thesis title
Comparative Analysis of Various available Rural Water Supply Project Procedures for Hilly
Region in Nepal
Prospect of Solid Waste Reuse and Recycling in Kathmandu Valley.
Groundwater contamination by on-site sanitation practices
Municipal Solid Waste Management in Janakpur Town
Comparative Study Of Characteristics And Performance Of Different Local Sand As
Filtering Medium On Rapid Filter
Change in Rainwater Quality Due to the Contact With Different Roofing Materials And
Storage
Wastewater treatment through green vegetables on floating foam media
Treatability Study Of Dye-Bath Effluent by Anaerobic Process
Lime Encrustation Problem and its Remedy Measures In Rural Water Supply For Spring
Sources
Iron Removal From Hand Pump Ground Water Under Limited Head Condition
Tube Settler Modelling and its Use in Water Treatment Process
Water resource engineering
Thesis title
Applicability of BTOPMC Model and Tank Model in Catchments of Himalayan Kingdom
of Nepal
Urban planning
Thesis title
River Bank Development (A Case Study of Hanumante Corridor at Bhaktapur)
Public-Private Enterprise-A Sustainable Solution of Urban Waste Management
Source: IOE (1998)
While the natural science focus of the course content is understandable as it is based in historicity,
challenges emerge with actual water uses and their impact at the micro-level of individuals,
households and communities. Such uses are shaped by human behaviour, which is studied by social
sciences. Thus while considering water, the study of both science streams is necessary. Effective
solutions to water problems can only be based on the principles of both natural and social sciences;
each in itself is incomplete, but together they have produced useful insights about water
management. In Nepal unfortunately, each has remained independent of the other and the
knowledge base has yet to be integrated.
While the lack of interaction between the social and natural science stream is a serious shortcoming,
other problems rooted in the realm of the country’s education system show a deeper malaise.
Education in Nepal is highly influenced by national politics at the cost of its quality. The ongoing
political uncertainty is directly interfering with education at all levels, from primary to higher. As a
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result, efforts to innovate and create an environment more conducive to learning have been
unsuccessful, and given the degree of political uncertainty, these efforts are insufficient.
The challenge is not only politicisation but also high centralizationxxiv. Till the early 1990s, TU was
synonymous with higher education, as this was the only establishment in the country, which offered
degrees from higher secondary to post graduate levels. TU also provided higher education through
its five technical institutes and four faculties with 200 campuses. One third of the campuses are
public and the private. In 1995, the TU enrolled over 100,000 students at different levels; this
constituted 99 percent of the total enrolment in higher education.xxv The university system is
overburdened and the situation has not improved even since four new universities were established
after 1990.
A major limitation is the lack of an environment with incentives for conducting interdisciplinary
research on water and its management. Foreign aid and the interests of multi lateral funding agencies
has affected the quality of research and its interference with policy making. Foreign aid has been
beneficial and debilitating at the same time: its entry has created space for contesting the approach
of change at a certain level but has also magnified dependency on external knowledge. This has
contributed to institutional failures. As a result Nepali policymaking is ad hoc and lacks conceptual
clarity. This is largely because private consultants, whose incentives are neither academic and nor
based on peer review carry out policy-level studies.
Sharma's (1998) analysis shows the disjunction between research and policy formulation in Nepal.
Since 1995 there have been extensive studies about local water rights in Nepal. However, one study
on water rights funded by Nepal’s Water and Energy Commission (WECS) makes no mention of
earlier studies.xxvi This tendency reflects the broader context of research in the country, which
according to Gyawali and Dixit (2000) is responsible for making a zamandari research culture, a
situation wherein in-house or in-country homework is substituted for total reliance on expatriate
consultants. This has not only weakened the intellectual vigour of Nepali experts but also made
them incapable of providing sound professional advice to the medley of political masters of the
day.xxvii In general, the culture of a research-oriented education has yet to be developed as an integral
part of the university system.
The central Himalayan region where present-day Nepal sits is a unique and complex biophysical
environment.xxviii Organised monitoring of the hydrological processes in the country began only after
1966. As a result, the knowledge base of hydrology in Nepal could be considered at the preempirical stage. Since 1980, many studies have analysed different aspects of the processes of
hydrology, groundwater regeneration and sedimentation in the Himalayas. These have produced
useful insights about the natural systems but have yet to be synthesised or made available in the
formal education stream. The research base need to be strengthened and insights into natural
sciences achieved so far synthesised.
In the absence of integration, these insights remain fragmented and there is a dearth of natural
science-based teaching materials that incorporate local and regional case studies. Instead, most
examples and methods are derived from temperate climates. Examples from other environments are
necessary and they do broaden perspective, but the replication of such approaches in the Himalayan
region is problematic and initiatives are needed to anchor these approaches in the local context.
Needless to say, an attempt at assimilating social with natural sciences has not even begun in the
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engineering education. The most advanced course along such line is offered at IAAS, where
irrigation modules include some aspects of social science.
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CHAPTER – 5
RECONCEPTUALISING WATER EDUCATION
Much of what is described above reads like a fragmented story incorporating ancient history, nature,
the social mosaic, foreign aid, politics and education. But actually it represents the diversity in
contemporary Nepal and the institutional ill within which it has enmeshed itself. Despite such
fragmentations, simplistic solutions are sought in hierarchic technological choices to usher in
development. Though this is only a small part of the constraints faced. Major contradictions have
not yet been addressed. As far as social change, scientific culture and education are concerned, the
major constraints have their roots in structural decisions made by Nepali society long ago, in the
Gorkhali unification, in the promulgation of a caste-based civil code of 1848 and in importing water
use technology but not creating these necessary social capacity. One straightforward contradiction
could be presented thus “Why should the rivers of the region that are symbols of purity flow with
untreated filth? Why cannot the notion of water’s spiritual purity ensure its physical cleanliness?
Questions like these are equally applicable throughout South Asia, not just in Nepal.
These questions have a deep fundamental and philosophical root that has not yet been explored
in detail for either the ramification it has for South Asian Society generally or Nepali society in
particular. Analysing the role of technology in enhancing security for the family Gyawali (2002)
suggests that answers need to be sought in the comparing the evolution of the university system
in Europe and South Asia. Western culture and technology are considered synonymous because
ever since the early Renaissance, the monastic tradition and scientific quest carried their contest
in a fused terrain that eventually became the universities of Europe. In contrast, in Nepal (and
South Asia as well) religion and culture is regarded as separate from science: Sanskrit pathshala
and madarsas teach culture whereas newly formed modern universities teach science, and the
two never meet. Since we live with schizophrenically split hearts and minds, our action cannot
be but paralysed, and perhaps it is reflected in the disjunction between spiritual purity and
physical cleanliness. As a result, education establishments are cut off from social reality, but also
operate without a global mind-frame. In addition, they are often run on elitist lines based on
selection. They produce docile citizens acceptable to the preordained structures of the state and
the profit-making priorities of the corporate sector. Graduates are prefabricated as consumers of
the idea rather than as producers, thereby catering only to certain notion of change defined by
one set of values. This system is unable to respond to social integration or unemployment since
education teaches a good level of neither general culture nor professional training that provides
both competency and a sense of responsibility vis-à-vis the community. One fundamental idea is
that education related to informed citizenship should be based on a critical appreciation of the
local context.xxix
The challenge relating to water management in Nepal situated within the Himalayan-Ganga needs to
be viewed in the context of reforming education. The on going stresses such as disharmony,
conflict, underdevelopment and marginalisation seem to have come about because technological
choices are not braced for and adapted to the physical and social systems. The result is consistent
institutional failures across nations and societies. Institutions are the key factor because they manage
water. Preparing institutions for change requires first understanding their views and strategies, then
tinkering with them and eventually altering the way theyfunction. How institutions respond to
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management challenges is sustained by certain cosmologies. Water education therefore needs to
teach graduates to respond to the institutional behaviour.
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CHAPTER – 6
A NEW CURRICULUM FOR WATER EDUCATION
The aim of education is to enrich human life, enhance societal well being and broaden outlooks.
Education a long process of query and enquiry is central to human advancement as it brings success
and satisfaction, understanding and appreciation. Water education should inculcate among its
students a sense of inquiry about and creative engagement in science and its methods. To respond to
the emerging challenges water professionals need to be innovative, independent and at times, even
nonconformist. They must be both generalists and specialists whose services preserve the natural
environment and help communities meet their needs. The projects and products they design must
blend with traditions, local norms and practices. Thus processes other than technology also become
important. An interdisciplinary education can reveal the complexities of life to a student and suggest
how he/she might adapt. Professionals must recognise the opportunities that technology offers but
also heed its limitations.
Although a well-founded education needs to consider all disciplines, this paper has focused on water
engineering. Because technology is not value-neutral, water issues are not only technical but also
social and political. Water professionals should take part in the affairs of society and accept the
social obligation that go with public policy making. To be able to develop the human dimensions of
technology and to match social and environmental needs, water professionals must be responsive to
public interests and appreciate how societies function. They must act in logical yet acceptable ways
to use engineering decisions and achieve greater social well being.
The present education makes engineers more interested in projects than in using their knowledge to
achieve equity and sustainability. They seem to enjoy working in undisturbed surroundings, isolated
from the community. However despite their struggle to communicate and work cooperatively with
people and communities, engineers seem to preserve a certain sense of aloofness. This character is
largely due to the militaristic beginning the water-based engineering had in colonial India and later in
western United States. Unfortunately, water education has encouraged neither intelligent speculation
nor effective communication. Because it is rigid and restrictive, this education stifles logic. As a
result the graduates find it difficult to assess risks.
A water professional must be more than a specialists in a single discipline if he/she is to successfully
respond to challenges related to the use and management of water. They must be conversant with,
even active in, areas outside their own fields. They must be equipped to solve problems using an
interdisciplinary approach and penetrating insight. They must be able to work with people in general
and those of other disciplines in particular. Water professionals must help identify practicable
solutions to the problems of poverty and livelihoods. These qualifications demand a thorough
review of the approaches to education and training in engineering. What is needed is a total
approach guided by intellectual capacity and by an outlook inspired by social justice, equity and
ethics.
How should water professionals respond to these emerging challenges? Specialists cannot be trained
solely to achieve objectives determined by other people; they must be a part of the decision-making
process. Water professionals must have greater roles in determining both the needs of a society and
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how they are met. To that purpose, water education must be broadened and training made
interdisciplinary. In addition to knowledge of techniques and methods, an understanding of the
larger picture, its risks and limitations, is needed. According to Gyawali and Dixit (2001),
"Responses to water management needs in the Himalaya-Ganga region have traditionally been
sought under the hierarchic mode by defining science in a unitary sense. Because it has ignored the
pluralistic contexts and thereby the specific approaches that each demands, the particular notion of
science has led to entrenched positions exacerbating disputes".
Conventionally, water education has been guided by the notion that technology exits independent of
society. In the past engineers also assumed that engineering designs were independent of politics.
Human relations and differing values shape how different groups perceive a problem related to
water and formulate a strategy in response. Though many times people disagree on nature of
problem and the goals of its solution, water professionals expect that from a situation of total
disagreement one can immediately move into a situation of total agreement without having to enter
into several engagements in order to reach policy consensus.xxx A technical design is assumed to be
an end in itself rather than a means that helps attain the end.
In practice, policy decisions occur within a complex environment in which numerous social actors
cogitate and strategise with varying degrees of certainty or objectivity. The lack of progress in
developing effective water management approaches is often viewed as - these imperfections in
decision-making. This is often not seen as a fundamental limitation of an approach that assumes that
the complex world is linear. Instead, failure is generally attributed to "external factors” such as "lack
of political will," "vested interest or "imperfect information".xxxi Water management approaches are
embedded within interplay of political processes wherein the question of balance of power is central.
This situation is beyond the technical domain. Hence water education needs to emphasise that
actions are continuously contested and that technology cannot extricate water from society.
The new approach must strive for the synthesis and integration of natural and social science. A
reformed approach to education must include various sets in subjects of different disciplines in
order to build on a scientific background. These include social science, psychology, and ecology as
well as philosophy, history, and culture. Equally important is an understanding of languages and
communication.
A water professional's role in meeting the emerging challenges depends on his/her personal abilities,
which can be gained through individual and collective endeavours. Ability depends on one's capacity
to express oneself clearly, concisely, and intelligently in order to convey one’s ideas and opinions. It
must be emphasised that the process of communication is from local to global and vice versa.
Knowledge of a local society and an understanding of its character, relationships, values, failures,
problems and potentialities within the larger regional context are useful to enhance the
professionalcapacity of the technocrat. Knowledge of at least one set of cultural values and
traditions other than the national ones is also necessary. Inaddition, an awareness of the arts and an
appreciation of artistic expression as well as the ability to read in a foreign language are crucial needs.
In order to acquire these qualities, an inquiring mind, the capacity to think critically and
imaginatively, and the willingness to engage in public discourse are essential. An introduction to
aspects such as resource valuation and natural resource management is also important.
Because water is related to ethics and morality, water education must emphasise these values as its
core elements. These objectives are ideal, and the path to achieving them is constrained by
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structural, procedural, attitudinal and political factors. The need to reformulate course content to
make it context sensitive is long overdue. The curriculum is only one part of the story. Equally
important are learning environments, research opportunities, linkages between research and
teaching, and the availability of suitable "readers".
At a more substantive level, the following set of activities would make water education interdisciplinary in Nepal.






Preparing "readers" that integrate and synthesise the natural and social sciences as they
relate to water.
Increasing interaction between teaching faculty, researchers and practitioners.
Inviting professionals working in resource management activities to be external
supervisors of M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies.
Making students aware of research methodologies. Introducing term papers on water
management issues at both B.Sc. and M.Sc. levels. These activities need to be formally
incorporated within the assessment structure so that students consider them academic
requirements.
Helping begin the process of revising the curriculum.
Educating the faculty with interest and capacity to teach interdisciplinary courses.
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CHAPTER- 7
CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT
Reforms in water education are desirable. However, we need to recognise that individuals operate
within an institution and respond to constraints in their own different ways. People possess differing
perceptions of risks. As a result, people organise around shared values which guide their responses
to water. In South Asia the coalitions involved in water issues can be broadly grouped into three
styles.
The first style is the alliance of the formal, government – led, engineering – dominated approach, in
which state department and engineering establishments are dominant participants. This alliance,
consisting of former bureaucrats, ex-diplomats, parliamentarians and a token representation of
NGOs, is involved in regional interactions called Track II initiatives.
The second style critiques the policies and approaches proposed by the state agencies or market. The
alliance is egalitarian, operates in the critique mode and offers no solutions. The approach calls for
the engagement of local and international activists in alliances centered around issues like the Sardar
Sarovar Project (SSP), or the Tehri high dams, or embankment-exacerbated floods.
A coalition of non-government organizations and academic researchers work to develop local and
regional perspectives on water that focus on alternatives and basic issues is the third style. This style
is well aware of the critiques and proposals of the other two. They sometimes engage in activism but
attempt to offer practical solutions.
A key challenge related to water is ensuring constructive engagement among these different
alliances, which have differences that go deep into their loyalties and moral principles. According to
Douglas (1999) the preferences for one or another set of institutional forms and consequently
commitment to the kind of knowledge that go with it gets to be studied because there are
supporting institutions standing by to aid it. Another level of explanation for the stability of ideas
that reaches into the internal working style of the alliance is found in four fold set of biases, each
defined against the other, and each sustained by the activity of aggressive self definition.xxxii
The bottom denominator of this engagement is a synthesis of natural and social science. This is
because science and technology alone cannot explain the complex, interactive processes shaping the
relationships among water, nature and human intervention. Particularly, the natural science-led
approach to water, while it tells much about the physical and chemical processes involved in
harnessing or developing water resources for human use, it cannot explain the social contexts of
water management or the institutional responses needed to ensure a just and equitable supply of
water. Most water management takes place at the level of the individual, the household and the
community. At that level, motivations to act or reluctance to change are formed, information is
created and interpreted, and a shared understanding as a basis for action developed.xxxiii
The path to the future is not whether we select one system of knowledge in place of another, but
how we assimilate the different forms of knowledge. Engagement is therefore necessary for creating
a space to promote the evolution of effective approaches to water management. Too many solutions
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are supply-guided and shaped after the western US model; they would thereby require a
fundamental restructuring of society and institutions. Past efforts have shown that such changes
have not occurred and are unlikely to occur in the near future. New adaptive approaches are needed
to bridge the existing gap between water management techniques and the diverse social realities. An
interdisciplinary education would lift the engagement of the three coalitions to a creative level and
shape the path to make this happen.
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NOTES
i
Thompson (1997) provides a thorough exposition of the argument that the per
capita approach will not work. Dake and Thomson (1999) demonstrate the very
importance of plural rationality in the field of consumption and sustainability and can
be extended to the case of water also.
ii
iii
iv
v
vi
vii
viii
ix
x
xi
xii
xiii
xiv
xv
xvi
xvii
xviii
xix
xx
xxi
xxii
xxiii
The 2001 Electricity Policy of the HMG mentions in the preamble the need to
generate hydroelectricity for "internal consumption and export". One of the
objectives of the policy is to develop hydroelectricity and an “exportable
commodity" See HMG (2001). The critique of such an approach is found in Gyawali
and Dixit (2001) and Dixit (2000).
See Gyawali and Dixit (1997)
See Gyawali (2002)
A. Athaimes, who designed the Trijuga system, was also involved in negotiations
with the Rana durbar in Nepal on the Sarada barrage. See Landon (1993).
See Thapa and Shrestha (1989). For discussions on the entry and role of technology
in Nepal, see Gyawali (2001). Also Gyawali (2002)
See Hagen (1998)
See Whitcombe (1982)
For discussions on canal irrigation in north India ibid Withcombe (1982), and Arnold
(1992).
One such structure is the Llangollen aqueduct at Pontcysylite, Wales built by civil engineer
Thomas Telford in 1778. See Water World (1992).
See Verghese (1999)
For details see Whitcombe (1992)
For discussion about education during the Rana period (1846-1950) ibid Landon
(1993)
Three decades later, Rana rule ended during the tenure of his son Mohan Shumsher.
For discussions see Skerry et al, (1991)
See NEC (1992)
The management of TU faces serious problems because of its financial crisis and
centralized structure. Even 12 years of government’s efforts to change TU’s
dependency on its grant has brought no favourable results. The magnitude of the
problem is determined by scope of incompetence in an organisation sense. TU
adheres to no known principles of management. The result of the decay of higher
education is no surprise; see NEC (1992) for details.
The lead author of this paper was a lecturer at that time. He and the expert had
several rounds about discussions on what could be done, but the proposal did not
come through and, unfortunately, nothing was documented.
Narendra Man Shakya of IOE shared this information in the seminar on “Recrafting
water education” organised by Nepal Engineering College 4th January 2002.
This concept of Stalinist model term is based on Gyawali (1996) who makes a
distinction between Nehruvian Stalinist approaches with Neo-Gandhian Maoists.
Roy (1999) also uses similar concept in her essay on Narmada.
See Chadda Behera et. al. (1997) for discussion on these initiatives.
See HMG/N, 2001.
For detail see Malla et al, (2001)
26
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xxiv
xxv
xxvi
xxvii
xxviii
xxix
xxx
xxxi
xxxii
xxxiii
Ibid HMG/N (1995), NEC (1992), New Era (1995), UNDP/World Bank/TU
(1995), UNDP/World Bank/TU (1995), and New Era (1996)
See HMG/N (1995)
For details on local water rights see Pradhan et al., 1997
See, Gyawali and Dixit (2000)
For detail see Gyawali (1995)
See Ziaka, et al (2001)
The concept related to agreements and disagreements on about the goal and nature
of problems is based on Priscolli (1993)
For a discussion about the complexity and systemic nature of water resource
arrangement, see Moench et. al. (2000) and Dixit (2000)
These concepts are based on Douglas (1999). The four set of biases are represented
by the hierarchies, egalitarians, the individualists and the fatalists. For details see
GeoJournal (1999)
SSRC (1995) and Ahmed, Dixit and Nandy (1997) discuss the issues of integrating
natural and social science.
27
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