Although four decades have elapsed since the construction of Kankai dam in Jhapa district first made the buzz, not an inch of progress has been achieved towards this end, grieve the local peasants.

Hari Sharan Nepal of Shivagunj-4 in the district ranted, "It is a pity that the government has not prioritized the construction of the Kankai dam although years have passed by since feasibility study on it was conducted."

He shared that the farmer folks here want the dam to be built at the earliest for it would significantly help them in boosting their production.

Another farmer from the same locality, Ram Krishna Adhikari, believes that the dam would mitigate the risk of flood in Kankai River as well as ensure irrigation facility to the farmers even in the dry season.

The dam is estimated to generate 60 mega watt of electricity and provide irrigation facility to as much as 67,450 hectare of land in the district of 'Food Basket' repute.

Similarly, Irrigation Development Division Office, Bhadrapur Chief, Ishwori Tiwari, expressed his confidence that millions of farmers farming along the areas stretching from Mechi River in the east to Ratuwa River in the west would be benefited by the 85-metre long dam estimated to produce 178 square metre per second water for irrigation purpose.

Of the total 90,000 hectare arable land in Jhapa district, only 39 per cent of the land has irrigation facilities, according to the Irrigation Office, Bhadrapur.

Nepal Electricity Authority had conducted a feasibility study of the dam in 2013 and concluded that the dam upon its construction could store more than 920 million square metres of water in the reservoir.

The estimated construction cost of the dam stands at Rs 24 billion which senior Agriculture Officer Meghnath Timilsina is confident that the dam could recover the construction cost within two years. RSS