Role of Water Resources in nepal

Being a mountainous country with snow-capped Himalayan Ranges and with a large number of perennial rivers originating there from, the water resources of Nepal are very immense. If the underground water is also taken in consideration, the actual water resources available in the country renewable and is of substantial significance from the viewpoint of hydro-electricity, land irrigation, drinking water, etc. But so far very little use has been made of this valuable asset. The total potential water power in Nepal has been estimated to be 83 thousand MW, but the actual production of this energy at present is very negligible.

similarly, the total area irrigated from these water resources is computed to be not more 42% of the total cropped land in the country. The total population served with pipe water is also very negligible. As such, a rational approach towards their maximum utilization for upgrading national economy has become too urgent. There is great role of water resources in order to develop various sectors, which are explained as below.
i) Hydro-power Production ii) Development of Industrial Sector iii) Agriculture Development iv) Development of Transportation and Communication
i) Hydro-Power Production: Water resources is the main source of hydroelectricity. Nepal can produce sufficient hydro power for the fulfillment of power demand in the country . If  Nepal is able to establish differen hydro power projects in the different parts of the country, we will be able to supply power according to public demand. Similarly, by exporting surplus power, we can improve our deficit trade balanced.

Role of Natural Resources in Economic Development

The question on the role of natural resources in economic development has no way of controversial. Undoubtedly, they play a very important role in the economic development of a country. But some development economists consider physical resources as rather an importance phenomenon in economic development. Prof. Simon Kuznets defines as, "Every country has some natural resources. The factors that induce formation of adequate reproducible capital as a basis for economic growth are unlikely to be inhibited by an absolute lack of natural resources". However, japan and Israel are the historic examples of economic development, which are advanced in development in spite of meager endowment of resources. The economists of this view, hence, believe that the natural resources, as a matter of fact, do not play any decisive role in development of a country.
Some of the economists have regarded that natural resource endowment of a country as an important determinant of its economic development. Prof. Lewis believes that "Natural resources determine the path of progress" As a country endowed  with rich natural resources can progress at a faster rate than the countries having insufficient natural resources. Most of the advanced countries in the world are found to be rich in natural resources and their economic development has largely been based on their adequate resources base. They support economic development by curbing agricultural productivity, human efficiency and industrial development of the country.

Natural Resources of Nepal

Natural resources may be regarded as a free gift of nature to the human beings for fulfilling its certain basic needs of life. According to Eric Zimmermann,"Natural resources may be defined as that part of man's physical environment on which he depends for support in obtaining the means to attain certain needs." All physical things that are found within the approach of man's activities are considered natural resources. In other words, the natural resources include all the properties of nature found on land, water, and in the air of a country given by nature as free gift.

Hence, natural resources include automatically a country's land, soil, minerals, water, climate, forests, ocean, rainfall and rivers, which play a very important role in the economic development of a country. The natural resources can be classified in two parts-real and potential. Former relate to the present resources whereas the latter include all hidden stock of resources, which are explored under a resources development program..