Mahakali Treaty or महाकाली सन्धि (Mahakali Sandhi) is an agreement between the Government of Nepal (former His Majesty's Government of Nepal) and the Government of India regarding the development of watershed of Mahakali River. The treaty was signed in 1996. The treaty has 12 articles agreements for an integrated development of barrage, dams and hydropower for mutual cooperation of the two countries by managing the water resources. The treaty recognizes the Mahakali River as a boundary river between the two countries.
In 1920, the Indo Nepal water treaty was signed by the British Raj to build the Sarda barrage to irrigate the United Province. This treaty is referred to as the Sarada Treaty. In the treaty, Nepal government agreed to give 4093.88 acres of land on the eastern banks of Mahakali river for the construction. In exchange, Nepal received an equal are of forest land from the British Indian government. In addition, the British Indian government also agreed to give NPR 50,000, a supply of 4.25 m/s out of annual flow of 650 m3/s during the dry season and 13 m/s of water in the wet season which could be further increased to 28.34 m/s if water was available.[1][2]
In 1971, Nepal started Mahakali Irrigation Project based on the 1920s Sarada agreement with the help from the World Bank in the Panchayat period.[3] In 1977, India and Nepal jointly agreed to investigate the Mahakali river resource.[1]
In 1981, India started to construct Tanakpur barrage unilaterally on the land which was transferred to British India under the Sarda agreement. Due to technical glitches, the afflux in the eastern side of the Mahakali river in Nepal was not contained thus requiring a bund on the left bank in Nepal. An agreement was reached to provide India with the needed land, about 2.9 hectares, in the Nepal side. Indian agreed to provide 25,000 cusecs of water as well as supply 25 MW of electricity. Nepal, however, demanded 50 and 59 percent share in water and electricity respectively, but not agreed upon.[1]
In 1991, during the visit of Nepalese Prime Minister to India, Nepal government agreed to allow construction of the 577 meters long bund. In return, India agreed to provide 28.34 m/s cusecs of water annually with 10 million units of electricity. However, the issue led to political turmoil in Nepal. Due to political turmoil, in October 1992, a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in which India agreed to provide 20 million units of electricity in exchange for the 2.9 ha land India was getting.[1]
As required by Article 126 of the Constitution of Nepal, the Mahakali treaty was approved by a two-third majority of the joint upper and lower houses of Parliament.[4]
On 12 February 1996, the Mahakali treaty was signed by the Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and the Indian Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao in Delhi[5] and ratified by the parliament with 2/3rd majority on 20 September 1996 in Nepal.[6] The Treaty was concluded in four months of official negotiations.[7]
The Mahakali treaty replaced the previous agreement regarding the Mahakali River from the Sarada Barrage and the Tanakpur Barrage.[8]
Following are the summary of the agreement:[8]