By Tara Chapagain
Kaski, June 2: Fewa Lake is once again full of water. The water level was reduced four months ago to repair the dam. But now, the level is slowly returning to normal.
Kiran Acharya, head of the Water Resources and Irrigation Development Division Office, Kaski, informed that the lake had started to regain its old form. “The water level has reached 993.15 reduced-level (RL). We feel the level can be brought up to 994.7. This will make the lake slightly bigger than before,” he said.
Asked why it was taking so long to refill the lake, Acharya said, "Initially, we had decided to bring water from the Seti River to recharge Fewa Lake. But seeing how there is no irrigation going on at the present and there is no hurry to fill the lake, we decided to let it fill naturally.”
According to Acharya, repair works on the dam completed two months ago. “A dam, once built, is believed to last for 100 years but only if it is maintained from time to time. Fewa Lake’s dam doesn’t need to be repaired for a decade now,” he said.
Taking advantage of the reduced water, Gandaki’s Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment had started to clean garbage from the exposed lakebed. But the work could not gather momentum. “Lack of budget prevented the work from moving forward as expected,” Acharya informed.
The Fewa Lake’s dam, which occupies an area of two hectares, was built in 1961 with help from the Indian government. The government had allocated an amount of Rs. 10 million to repair it.