Electricity Development Center was established on Shrawan 1, 2050 under the then Ministry of Water Resources to develop and promote electricity sector and to improve financial effectiveness of this sector at the national level by attracting private sector investment. It was later renamed as Department of Electricity Development on Magh 24, 2056.

Department of Water Resources and Irrigation is a government organization, with a mandate to plan, develop, maintain, operate, manage and monitor different modes of environmentally sustainable and socially acceptable irrigation and drainage systems from small to larger scale surface systems and from individual to community groundwater schemes.

Government of Nepal started hydrological and meteorological activities in an organized way in 1962. The activities were initiated as a section under the Department of Electricity. The section was subsequently transferred to the Department of Irrigation and was ultimately upgraded to Department status in 1988.