The opposition CPN (UML) parliamentarians who trekked to Purnagiri in west Nepal two weeks ago and came back with the revelation that India was unilaterally building a dam have some explaining to do. The government and the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu have both denied that any dam construction is taking place. An 8 February Indian Embassy press release says: There can be no question whatsoever of one party to a bilateral agreement taking unilateral steps for any investigation or construction. It adds that the joint investigation underway at the potential dam site was to generate data necessary for the preparation of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) that is required if the Mahakali Treaty is to be implemented.

Some UML leaders have since backtracked from their earlier position that dam building is underway, but insist that even survey work should stop. It is believed that at a time the country is heading for local elections, the UML posturing has more to do erasing from public memory the fact that the party was right behind the government in ratifying the treaty. Differences over ratification of the Mahakali treaty a factor in the UML split in 1998.

The 12 February 1996 treaty that was ratified by parliament in 1997, approves the integrated development of the Mahakali River. This takes into account the existing Sarada and Tanakpur barrages built on the Indian side, and the Pancheshwar Project to be built jointly by Nepal and India. Investigations are now underway through a Joint Project Office set up in December 1999, and two sites, Rupaligad and Purnagiri, are being investigated for possible construction of the re-regulating dam.