Nepal and Bangladesh are set to sign a memorandum of understanding with regard to sharing of real time data on weather and floods to help each other avert monsoon-induced disasters.

The data sharing would allow the two countries to do necessary planning to save lives and property.

Nepali officials said that the MoU would be signed in June during the next meeting of the Nepal-Bangladesh Joint Expert Committee on Harnessing Water Resources and Mitigating Floods and Flood Damage in Bangladesh.

On March 20, a Cabinet meeting of the government of Nepal had decided to approve the signing of the MOU between the two countries on the sharing of hydro-meteorological data and flood forecasting.

“The signing of the MoU is scheduled in the first week of June,” said Gopal Sigdel, secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation.

Officials said once the MoU is signed with Bangladesh, it will be the first time that Nepal would share its data on floods and weather with another country.

Nepal has already approved the proposed MoU sent by Bangladesh.

“After signing the MoU, Nepal will start getting the real time climate data of Bay of Bengal, which will help Nepal forecast the weather conditions in Nepal. Nepal will provide data on the water flow in its rivers, which will help Bangladesh examine the flow of the rivers reaching Bangladesh, from Nepal,” Sigdel added.

Nepal’s major rivers, including Koshi, Narayani and Karnali are major tributaries of the Ganga river in northern India. The Ganga winds its way through northern India, eventually emptying into the Bay of Bengal. Hence, the flood data of Nepal’s river systems will be important for Bangladesh to mitigate the risk of floods.

The officials said that Bangladesh, as a downstream country, faces the risk of floods constantly and it can minimise the risk of monsoon-induced disasters with availability of the real-time data on floods in Nepal and India.

“Nepal will share its water flow data with Bangladesh on Nepal’s rivers whose waters reach Bangladesh, while Bangladesh will share its weather data with Nepal,” said a senior official of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the real time availability of the flood data from Nepal would help Bangladesh prepare for possible floods in Bangladesh as it normally takes a day and a half to two days for the waters from Nepal’s rivers to reach Bangladesh.

“Bangladesh has also promised to provide us with satellite imagery and radar-based real time data on climate. The situation of rainfall in Nepal could be estimated, based on the climate data of the Bay of Bengal,” the official added.

The monsoon or rainy season in Nepal begins after the monsoon clouds enter Nepal from the Bay of Bengal. The monsoon usually begins in Nepal, in June.

The meteorological data of the Bay of Bengal will be important for Nepal as the monsoon coming from there, determines the level of rainfall the country would witness.

Cyclones coming from the Bay of Bengal have also been affecting the country’s mountaineering sector, time and again. In May 2021, Nepal observed the impact of back-to-back cyclones in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, which disrupted mountaineering activities.

The officials said even though the two countries could access a majority of the climate and flood data from the websites of relevant offices, the MoU would formalise their bilateral cooperation in the sector. “The MoU will also pave the way for getting additional data not available on the website,” said Sigdel, who is also responsible for overseeing the water resources and irrigation issues.

According to the department, it gets real time data on the water levels from the sensors installed in several rivers, including Koshi, Narayani and Karnali.

“It has installed such sensors in 140 locations across several rivers, of which, about 110 are currently working, while the others have been swept away by the floods,” Sunil Pokharel, senior divisional hydrologist at the department, told the Post in July last year.

Such instruments have also been installed in major rivers including Mahakali, Kankai, Kamala, Bagmati, eastern Rapti, western Rapti and Babai.

Pokharel said the department updates its information taken from the sensors, on its website, in real time, which benefits both Bangladesh and the Indian government agencies to make decisions.

According to officials, Bangladesh had been seeking such cooperation since the late 1990s. In 2000, Nepal and Bangladesh had held their first meeting regarding data sharing on weather and floods in Dhaka. It was the first expert-level meeting held by the two countries.

The second meeting was held in Nepal in 2001 on how to establish data-sharing mechanisms. Their third meeting was held in 2004 on the mitigation of flooding, followed by additional meetings in 2006 and 2008.

After a prolonged gap, six meetings were held in Kathmandu in July last year, which agreed to hold consultation on the MoU proposed by Bangladesh with submission of the finalised MoU at the next meeting.

“Following the signing of the MoU, data to be shared by the two countries will be complementary to each other,” said the department official. “Bangladesh will share data prior to the rainfall in Nepal, while Nepal will share its data after the rainfall.”