📋 Tender Overview
Source of Funding / Amount: Grant: mechanized irrigation innovation project
Ordinary capital resources: US$ 15.00 million
The project will provide long-term sustainable solutions to increase year-round access to irrigation water in the terai by constructing a large-scale network of tube wells with dedicated electricity distribution networks. The management, operations, and maintenance (mom) of the tube well irrigation schemes will be contracted to a third-party operator, tentatively under a design-build-operate (dbo) modality. On-demand irrigation services will be provided to the farmers by the mom operator against payment through prepaid irrigation systems. Contracting the design, construction, and operation for a period of about 15 years to private sector will provide an incentive for the contractor to design and construct quality and sustainable infrastructure. The project will also provide specific institutional and capacity development support for the water users to develop self-sustained and long-term crop intensification and diversification, and market support services. The project area was selected to serve farmers who do not receive surface irrigation water.
Most irrigation systems in nepal are in the terai plains and provide supplementary irrigation for rice cultivation during the monsoon season. The projected impacts of climate change will increase demand for irrigated water and uncertainty around the reliable supply of water throughout the year. The expansion of irrigated areas and provision of reliable irrigation services during the dry season is constrained because costly investments in storage dams, inter-basin water transfers, and surface irrigation systems are required. Alternatively, year-round irrigation can be achieved by tapping readily available and annually renewable groundwater resources through efficient and sustainable mechanized (pump) irrigation. Nepal faces increasing difficulty in sustainably financing the management, operation and maintenance (mom) of irrigation schemes because of: (i) inadequate government financing; (ii) public agencies lack of knowledge and resources; (iii) weak mom capacity, inadequate asset inventory and o&m planning; and (iv) poor cost recovery from the water users associations (wuas), which have struggled to maintain and operate small irrigation systems well. Hence, continuing business-as-usual approaches to mom is not sustainable and innovation is required. This includes providing alternative mom institutional options, including private sector participation. Poor irrigation system performance translates into low crop yields and land productivity and inefficient water management. Low efficiency in irrigation in addition to climate change impacts further constraints water availability for year-round irrigation. The project supports both technical and institutional innovations. The technical innovation involves designing and constructing a large-scale highly efficient groundwater irrigat
