“기후위험 재평가 필요” 권고에도…남동발전, 네팔 수력발전소 평가 없었다

The recent large-scale floods in Nepal prompted Korean South Dong Power, a participant in the upper Tarapathar-1 (UT-1) hydroelectric power plant, to receive warnings from international independent experts in 2024 to reevaluate the project's climate risks. Despite these warnings, no such evaluation has been conducted following the 2024 floods.

The Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Independent Panel of Experts (IPoE) fifth report, released in September 2024, recommended a "Climate Resilience Assessment" for the project, but it was not carried out until the fifth field check on May 5th. The climate resilience assessment examines the power plant's facilities and safety systems to determine if they can withstand changes in disaster patterns caused by climate change, such as floods and heavy rains.

ADB has been regularly monitoring the project's risk factors and response through an internationally composed panel of environmental, social, and technical experts. After the September 2024 floods, water levels in the Trisuli River near the project site surged sharply, endangering workers' safety in camps. The IPoE highlighted the risk to workers and the surrounding community, noting that the floods expanded the scope of the climate risk assessment required.

The report suggested expanding the assessment to cover "disaster risks," emphasizing the need to combine the effects of climate and geology. The panel recommended establishing a separate "Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management and Monitoring Plan" during the power plant's operational phase. While it might be challenging to prevent severe damage in the case of a major natural disaster like this flood, the experts' call for climate and disaster risk reassessment and strengthened response systems remains a separate issue.

South Dong Power acknowledged that it is difficult to verify whether the recommendations were properly implemented given the local conditions.