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Paper short abstract:

Through the long delayed Arun-3 dam and the Melamchi Water Supply Project in Nepal, my paper will discuss the hydrosocial implications of promised but unbuilt water infrastructures and bring Wittfogel in conversation with the recent literature on the technopolitics of water.

Paper long abstract:

In many ways, the Nepalese state is struggling with water - its overabandance and lack. One of them is connected to the fact that it is at the same time among the countries with the highest hydropower potential and the lowest electricity production per capita. The consequences are long hours of daily brownouts for citizens and a high dependence on petroleum imports from India. Another major difficulty is the dramatic shortage of water in the Kathmandu valley where people receive water of poor quality for a few hours every three to for days only, therefore have to store large quantities in private water tanks and often rely on private water providers. In both cases, critical infrastructures have been suspended for decades: while the country's remote mountain areas are full of proposed hydropower projects, inhabitants of Kathmandu have been promised relieve through a tunnel connecting the Melamchi valley with the capital.

Through the Arun-3 dam and the Melamchi Water Supply Project, my paper will discuss the hydrological, political, technical and social implications of promised but unbuilt water infrastructures and bring Wittfogel in conversation with the recent literature on the technopolitics of water. I will argue that the government and foreign donors through their concentration on large-scale projects and the far future have severely hindered the promotion of small-scale solutions and institutional reforms through the process Jane Guyer called the evacuation of the near future.