An Overview of Status and Development Trend of Aquaculture and Fisheries in Nepal

Table 1

Natural water sources in Nepal.

SN	Water Resources	Estimated area (ha)	Coverage Percentage	Total number	Remarks
1.	Rivers and streams	395000 ha	47.77%	6000	45000 km length
2.	Lakes	5000 ha	0.60%	5358
3.	Reservoirs	1500 ha	0.18%		Future potential 78000 ha
4.	Ponds	12794 ha	1.38%	44725
5.	Marginal swamps	12500 ha	1.51%
6.	Low land irrigated paddy field	398000 ha	48.14%		Total paddy area 1551000 ha
7.	Irrigation canal	3160 ha	0.38%		Irrigation canal length 7900 KM (assuming 4 m average width of the canal)
8.	Highway side ditches	262 ha	0.03%		Approximate highway length in Terai area 3500 KM (assuming 15% of the highway has the side ditches with 2.5 m average width)

Note: SN 7 and 8 are general prediction data; authentic verification is still not done, source: [26].