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Not A Drop To Drink
Water crisis is heating the Kathmandu valley
By A CORRESSPONDENT
Fed up with the irregular supply of drinking water and paying a lot of money to buy the water, Babulal Maharjan, 38, a resident of Chyasal, has decided to turn to his traditional way of water conservation. Maharjan along with other two dozens youths of Prayag Pokhari, Lalitpur district, gathered on Sithi Nakha, Monday (June 13) – a traditional festival dedicated to clean wells and to pray for uninterrupted water in stone spouts and wells. As the water-level continues to shrink because of over extraction, nobody is certain whether Maharjan's inclination will pay off.
As people extract large volumes of ground waters and the process of recharge is very slow as the rainwater is released to river through sewerage within a very short period of time. Many wells and stone spouts have already dried thanks to slow process of recharge. The water level in all the areas in the valley goes down from March to June.
Time Consuming
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A Water Tap : No Water to drink |
Collection of water is one of the most irritating and time consuming works in the valley. In almost all households, a family member has to spend at least an hour to accumulate water in the underground tank and then pump it to the higher floors.
Sundar Gurung, a resident of Koteshwor wakes up at 3 in the morning. If he does not wake up in time, he cannot get drinking water. His course begins by operating two-horse powered water pumps as he need to shock water from government pipe about 100 meters away from his residence. Despite all his efforts, getting water is still difficult. "If I am late for few minutes, other people will suck the water and my tap will remain empty."
Gurung is not alone in this area. All the residents of Koteshwor, Baneshwor, Thamel and other areas have similar problems to face. Supplied routinely on three days a week, the sounds of the water pumps disturbs the tranquility of the areas on the day of water distribution. "There is ‘might is rights’. If you don't have high powered pump set, your tap will go dry," said Surendra Khanal, a resident of Baneshwor.
This is not a unique character of these places but universal phenomenon of almost all the localities of the valley. Over ninety-percent registered tap owners use one or other kinds of pump sets to extract the water making the cost of drinking water higher.
Despite the efforts of Nepal Water Supply Corporation, there are still disparities in water supply. In Chundevi, Maharajgunj and north of Royal Palace areas, there are abundant of water supply. In some areas, people do not get even a drop of water as the pipe virtually dried up for months. Interestingly, those who do not get water have also to pay much higher tariffs than those who regularly get. According to a regulation of Nepal Water Supply Corporation, Rs.500.00 is minimums for those whose meter does not operate.
As there is virtually no rain in the last two months and temperature goes up, the water levels in most of the reservoirs of Kathmandu valley gone down. "We have experienced drastic reduction of the water level in some sources or up to 300 percent," said general manager of Nepal Water Supply Corporation. "The Manohara Reservoirs – which is 8 kilometers east of Kathmandu – is now supplying 4 million liters per day compared to its supply capacity of 20 million litters per day. "The water supply capacity of Bode's Reservoirs, 10 kilometers of east of capital, has gone down to 3 million liter a day from 12 million liter capacity. The situation is similar in Sundarijal reservoirs; 8 kilometer north of capital, is similar.
According to Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC), the current demand of drinking water in Kathmandu valley is about 190 million liter per day but the corporation supplies only 90 Million Liters Per Day (MLD) At present there are about 1, 40,000 houses holds as registered users of water in the valley. NWSC installs average 5000 new taps every year. At the rate of 1000 MLD, there need additional 5 million liter per annum.
With the support from different agencies including JICA, many steps have already been taken to improve the supply situation. NWSC on its own resources has also constructed new projects and some old projects are renovated. As the population pressure is growing higher, the demand for water is rising.
With its 17 service reservoirs and overhead tanks including major ones in Sundarijal and Pharping, Balaju and Sinbhu, NWSC has been supplying the water. As the distribution network is getting older, there are frequent cases of leaks and burst. According to NWSC, around 40 percent of water is wasted due to the lick age.
Despite available abundant waters in Known as a country with huge water resources, large numbers of valley's population do not find adequate water to drink.
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