Urgent Need for Nepalese Experts

NEED FOR EXPERTS| While Norway has trained a pool of engineers with its generous support, there is also an urgent need for overseers, drillers, foremen and other experts, says Shiva Kumar Sharma, president of Himal Hydro.

Shiva Kumar Sharma has a long history with Norway. Smiling, he talks about the time he first went to Norway – in 1985, the third group of students from Nepal to attend a Norad postgraduate electrical engineering course. After returning, he was the first Nepalese engineer to join the Himal Power Company.

A Norwegian speciality
Started by a Norwegian visionary named Odd Hoftun, the Himal Power Company was initially supported with funds from Norway. Hoftun, who had come to build a hospital in Tansen in the fifties, realised that it was useless to provide just medicine to the people. Their living situation had to be changed. Looking around, he realised that the richest resource in Nepal was hydropower. And hydropower was a Norwegian specialty.

In the early sixties, Hoftun started the Butwal Technical Institute, which trained Nepalese in both theory and practice. The first group of 30-35 students came from Butwal and Gorkha districts. This Institute, which continues to this day, was similar to a small industrial complex: there were wood industry, a plywood factory and other enterprises. After that the Nepalese started to develop local initiatives, some of these enterprises closed down.

He also started the Butwal Power Company, which sells electricity to the Nepal Electricity Authority, thereby ensuring a steady income.

The richest resource in Nepal is hydropower.

Stringent conditions
Hoftun envisioned a time when Nepalese would become skilled in manpower, and continue the work of hydropower in the future. And that is when Himal Hydro was set up. Initially funded by Norad, which provided the funds through the United Mission to Nepal and the Nepalese government, it later became a fully Nepalese owned company.

Himal Hydro has been involved in building many of Nepal’s key hydropower projects, like Aadikhola and Jhimruk. It was also instrumental in building Nepal’s first underground powerhouse, and has the capacity to build underground tunnels.
“However, despite its capacity, tenders for new hydropower projects continue to be handed to international companies because of stringent conditions put by donors,” says Mr. Sharma. Conditions can include large sums of initial investment capital, which put local Nepalese companies out of bidding range.

Enormous potential
The irony is that these international companies will eventually sub-contract out the work to local companies and use their expertise and manpower.
“Because of lack of work, many Nepalese skilled workers opt to migrate.

In order to ensure sustainability, it would be important to build up the capacity of local companies to run the power plants on an affordable basis.

People do not leave as long as they are engaged in interesting work, even if it is low-paid, but once the work ends, they may look for opportunities abroad,” Mr. Sharma underscores. In order to stop this brain drain, it would be important to support local institutions like Himal Hydro, and ensure that it has the support and encouragement from the government and international donors to take on large-scale electrical engineering projects.

“Nepal has enormous potential for hydropower, and yet only a few percent of it is tapped. Currently, only the middle Marshyangdi project is in active construction,” Mr. Sharma claims.

Private companies taking over
Hiring locals for large-scale projects also tends to create its own pool of experts. While Norway has trained a pool of engineers with its generous support, there is also an urgent need for overseers, drillers, foremen and other experts in developing countries.“Each project is a “school of learning” in itself,” says Mr. Sharma. “All kinds of people get training while working on a hydropower project.”

Contrary to Hoftun’s vision, Norwegian private companies started to take over hydropower projects in Nepal to make a commercial profit. Projects like Khimti is 85 per cent owned by Norwegian companies, while the government only has a 15 per cent share. This has crippled the Nepal Electricity Authority, which buys its electricity from the private companies. In order to ensure sustainability, it would be important to build up the capacity of local companies to run the power plants on an affordable basis.

Norway has done a lot to develop the hydropower sector in Nepal, especially with its crucial training of manpower. Mr. Sharma, a product of Norwegian post-graduate training, is an example of how Norad funding has supported local experts to run, manage, and sustain their own hydropower resources, and help directly with the development of their country and its resources.