Study on Minimum on Environmental Flow for Hydro Power Projects in Bhutan



Contract partner: GNHC / RGoB - Gross National Happiness Commission - Royal Government of Bhutan Country: Bhutan Funding amount: € 1.300.000,00 Project start: 01.10.2014 End: 31.03.2019

Short Description:

Overall goal


The Updated Power System Master Plan 2003-2022 shortlists 76 hydropower projects from which 70 are run of the river scheme and 6 reservoir schemes. Development of hydropower requires a vast amount of natural resources and causes numerous impacts on the environment, one of which is the reduced flow of water. Therefore, minimum environmental flow required for aquatic lives downstream is one of the major environmental concerns of hydropower projects. As of now Bhutan does not have any specific guidelines for assessment of the minimum environmental flow.

Through this project institutional capacity for assessment and monitoring of environmental flow will be developed to ensure minimising or avoiding negative impact on environment from activities in the context of hydropower development.

The main results will be that

- a guideline for assessment and determination of environmental flow has been developed;

- the environmental flow has been assessed in at least 4 river basins;

- 26 officials from universities, relevant Ministries and the National Environment Commission have been trained on assessment and determination of e-flow; 13 of them have also been trained at site for field sampling and data collection;

- 1 official from the National Environment Commission has successfully completed master studies in the field of environmental assessment.

The main beneficiaries are National Environment Commission, the Department of Hydromet Services – as the main agency responsible for collection and management of hydrological information, Department of Livestock – responsible for fish species and other aquatic lives in the rivers of Bhutan and the three Bhutanese Colleges to incorporate the key aspects of e-flow/study of fish species and other aquatic lives in their curriculum.

The contribution is in line with Austria’s programmes under the Austria – Bhutan Country Strategy 2014-2018 and projected under the 11th Five Year Plan of the Royal Government of Bhutan.

project number 2766-00/2014
source of funding OEZA
sector Umweltschutz allgemein
tied
modality
marker
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.
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