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Major Rivers of Nepal
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Nepal can be divided into three major river systems from east to
west: the Kosi River, the Narayani River (India's Gandak River), and the
Karnali River. All ultimately become major tributaries of the Ganges
River in northern India. After plunging through deep gorges, these
rivers deposit their heavy sediments and debris on the plains, thereby
nurturing them and renewing their alluvial soil fertility. Once they
reach the Tarai Region, they often overflow their banks onto wide
floodplains during the summer monsoon season, periodically shifting
their courses. Besides providing fertile alluvial soil, the backbone of
the agrarian economy, these rivers present great possibilities for
hydroelectric and irrigation development. India managed to exploit this
resource by building massive dams on the Kosi and Narayani rivers inside
the Nepal border, known, respectively, as the Kosi and Gandak projects.
None of these river systems, however, support any significant commercial
navigation facility. Rather, the deep gorges formed by the rivers
represent immense obstacles to establishing the broad transport and
communication networks needed to develop an integrated national economy.
As a result, the economy in Nepal has remained fragmented. Because
Nepal's rivers have not been harnessed for transportation, most
settlements in the Hill and Mountain regions remain isolated from each
other. As of 1991, trails remained the primary transportation routes in
the hills.
The eastern part of the country is drained by the Kosi River, which
has seven tributaries. It is locally known as the Sapt Kosi, which means
seven Kosi rivers (Tamur, Likhu Khola, Dudh, Sun, Indrawati, Tama, and
Arun). The principal tributary is the Arun, which rises about 150
kilometers inside the Tibetan Plateau. The Narayani River drains the
central part of Nepal and also has seven major tributaries (Daraudi,
Seti, Madi, Kali, Marsyandi, Budhi, and Trisuli). The Kali, which flows
between the Dhaulagiri Himal and the Annapurna Himal (Himal is the
Nepali variation of the Sanskrit word Himalaya), is the main
river of this drainage system. The river system draining the western
part of Nepal is the Karnali. Its three immediate tributaries are the
Bheri, Seti, and Karnali rivers, the latter being the major one. The
Maha Kali, which also is known as the Kali and which flows along the
Nepal-India border on the west side, and the Rapti River also are
considered tributaries of the Karnali.
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