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VOL. 28, NO. 25, April 03, 2009 (Chaitra 21 2065) |
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Water, Water Everywhere Not A Drop to Drink
Although Nepal is known as a country of abundant fresh water reserves with 225 cubic billion runoff water, the irony is that the country is unable to supply enough drinking water to all its citizens living in the capital city. At a time when the demand for water is growing thanks to the burgeoning population, there is short fall of supply resulting in a number of new conflicts among local communities over the issue of water sharing. As demands for water hit the limits, conflicts are spreading within the country. And more places in the country might soon be spiraling toward water disputes unless they move quickly to strike agreements on how to share drinking water. If water supply capacity and managerial skills do not improve, it is inevitable that there will be more conflicts in coming days
By KESHAB POUDEL
“We are spending quarter of our day time to collect a bucket of water (20 litters) from traditional well,” said Sagun Tamang, a resident of Ratamate of Panchakhal Village Development Committee, 50 kilometers east of capital city Kathmandu. “If the government doesn’t provide us water from upstream sources, we will launch tough agitation,” Tamang threatened.
With a village of 100 houses, the traditional water well dried up and the supply of water from upstream stopped. As there was virtually no rainfall this winter, the water shed has not charged enough.
This village is not alone in facing such situation. The state of drinking water supply is no better in capital city either. In the dry season, the water supply reduces to one third. Living under severe load shedding of 16 hours a day, over four million population of the valley are now facing severe water crisis. It is very difficult to adjust the water supply routine and electricity supply schedule.
There is a kind of competition among the population to get the water when they have electricity as well as supply of water. More powerful the water pump set, more water will be collected. For those poor people, the situation is no different in rural or urban area.
“One of the challenges for us now is to distribute water in the communities. Each of our tankers carry less than 5000 litters but demand is much more,” said a senior official at Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited.
Whether it is in Kathmandu city or village like in Panchkhal, the poor households suffer much as they have to queue up for hours to collect a bucket of water every day. “We have to compete with each other to fetch a bucket of water,” said Tamang.
Last year the conflict over water in Dhulikhel city, 30 kilometers east of capital Kathmandu, made headlines in the national newspapers.
After a weeklong blockade in December 2008, supply of drinking water resumed after the users' committee agreed to provide water to areas of the municipality earlier deprived of water supply. The week long disputes virtually dried up the taps of Dhulikhl Municipality.
Protesting the apathy of water users' committee to their demand for access to piped water throughout the area, locals from the outskirts of the municipality had wrecked the pipelines, cutting off water supply to the town.
When then UN general secretary Kofi Annan said that fierce competition for fresh water may well become a source of conflict and wars in the future four years ago, many dismissed his argument saying that it was alarmist. If the recent disputes over sharing over water in Nepal are any indication, what former UN general secretary Annan said is going to be reality.
Water is a renewable but not infinite source. The amount available to the country today is almost the same as it was centuries ago even as internal demand has steadily increased. Since 1950, the water supply per person has fallen thanks to increased population. Nepal’s population increased from 7 million to 26 million in the last five decades. Unlike oil and most other strategic resources, the fresh water has no substitute. It is essential for growing food, manufacturing the goods and safeguarding the human health.
Though the conflict among the people over use of water is growing, the history suggests that the cooperation over water has been the norm. Numbers of these disputes are hostile but they are settled through negotiations. Disputes are erupting within the countries in the downstream regions, but there is a way of solution.
Availability of Water
According to National Water Plan Nepal 2005, Nepal has more than 6000 rivers, which provide a dense network of rivers with steep topographic conditions. Drafted by Ministry of Water Resources and Water and Energy Commission Secretariat in 2005, the report stated that the total average annual runoff from all these river systems is estimated at about 225 billion cubic meters (BCM).
Although such a huge volume of water is available, only 15 BCM of water has so far been utilized for economic and social purposes. More than 75 percent of the population have access to basic water supply but most of the water supply systems are not delivering the water satisfactorily.
According to experts, Nepal’s crisis of drinking water supply is related to management. With more than1800 mm annual rain fall and vast reserve of fresh water in the Himalayas, the crisis is a result of mismanagement more than anything else.
Of course, ground water depletion and falling water tables have already dried up almost all traditional water taps in the urban areas like in Kathmandu the harvesting of rain water and use of waste water may reduce the burden. The modern lifestyles demand more water but people need to do more things with less water.
Stronger policies are needed in Nepal for groundwater use – to price urban water in a way that encourages thriftiness instead of waste. There is a need for a long term policy and management reforms at all levels.
The water management in the past focused on developing ways to capture and deliver water in greater quantities to people. Now there is a need for a well planned and well managed system. For instance, there is a need to encourage people to use water with care.
For instance, the checking of leakage in the taps can help increase supply since there is over 30 percent water leakage in the system in Kathmandu Valley. This kind of leakage is seen all over the country. If this leakage is reduced, the coverage as well as the supply system can be improved.
With an aim to reduce leakage, the government has handed over the water supply in the Kathmandu Valley to an autonomous body. Similarly, the communities are given responsibility to handle the rural water supply.
Demand of Water
Although the government report claims that water supply covers 76 percent of the population and says it is planning to provide drinking water supply to all by 2017 - two years later the goal set by Millennium Development Goal, the reality is different. Nobody knows about the quality and volume of water supplied by the government.
Nepal has abundant renewable resources. The annual rainfall varies from 500 mm/yr tin some western areas to more than 4000 mm/yr on southern slopes of the Himalaya range. Although Nepal has 230 BCM of water available annually, only a small part of it (estimated at 15 BCM) has so far been utilized for economic and social purposes. Only 75 percent of the population has access to basic water supply. Most of the water supply system is not functioning properly.
“Nepal required 800 millimetres water a year for consumptive purposes. By 2027, Nepal will require 1800 millimetres for 38.8 million populations. The water availability will be 230,000. Nepal requires 14880 millimetre water in 2000 for all purposes including power, irrigation and drinking water. By 2027 the country will require just 98,980 mm of water,” said engineer Nand Kishor Agrawal. Water abstraction represents only a small fraction of the large volume available in the country.”
“What I can say is that our coverage of water supply is now 76 percent and it will increase to 80 percent next year,” said Suman Kumar Sharma, joint secretary at Ministry of Works, Housing and Physical Planning.
According to WateAid Nepal's Water For All Report, in Nepal 28.4 percent of the total population does not have access to safe drinking water (The Tenth Plan 2002-2007).
Even the members of Constituent Assembly who visited villages realized the priorities of the people when they recently visited people to collect opinion on constitution. “We don’t want to write any Dhara (Article in the constitution) but what we want is Kaldhara (drinking water tap) at our door step,” suggested a group of people to the members of Constituent Assembly who went to Bhardeo village in Lalitpur seeking their opinion on new constitution.
“The demands of overwhelming number of population are drinking water, sanitation and roads,” said Laxman Prasad Ghimire, chief whip of Nepali Congress party who recently visited Rukum of Mid Western District.
Water Week
Celebrating Water Week, various organizations organized different programs raising the issue of drinking water supply.
Organized by WaterAid Nepal to sensitize about the issue of drinking water to be put as a fundamental right in the new constitution, a huge candle light ceremony in Swayambhu indicated that people are very much concerned about deteriorating water supply situation.
All want to see the water and sanitation be included as fundamental right. The participants handed over the memorandum to the CA member Nabindra Raj Joshi to be presented to chairman of Constituent Assembly Subas Chandra Nemwang. The world water day was celebrated with a slogan Water, Climate and Our life: Merging Interests, Creating Synergies.
Water Requirement
According to an estimate, per day an urban family of four consumes 300 liters of water. They need 20 litters a day for drinking, 160 litters a day for dishwashing, bathing and laundry, 120 liters for toilet flushing, cleaning vehicles and gardening.
However, the situation is different in rural areas where the demand of water is about 30 liters a day. According to Department of Water Supply and Sewerage, the rural population consumes very nominal water for households.
Although the coverage of water and sanitation increased over the years, more than one third of the population doesn’t have access to water including those who live in urban areas.
As there is no rain for last six months, most of the watershed has already dried up creating the scarcity of water. Seven million people have no access to improved water sources.
“Every year 13,000 children in the country die before reaching their fifth birthday from water related diseases caused by lack of water and sanitation services. These services are basic human rights, which underpin health, educational and livelihoods, forming the first, essential step in overcoming poverty. Nepal is rich in water resources and in people with the technical knowledge to provide these services and yet so many people remain without access,” said Sanjaya Adhikary, country representative WaterAid Nepal.
Resources Gap
There is a big resource gap to meet universal access of water in Nepal. According to a study, there is requirement of Rs. 6.3 billion annually but there is just Rs. 3.5 billion budget – the gap of Rs. 2.8 billion or 44 percent. There are total 6.8 million people without access to water supply. Among them, 4.8 million people live in hill, 1.5 in terai and 0.8 million in mountains.
There is a growing gap between the poor and rich over the access to water. According to a study conducted by Rabin Lal Shrestha, research and advocacy manager at WaterAid Nepal, poor are eight times least likely to receive pure drinking water than well to do communities.
Although the current three year interim plan has promised to provide these facilities to all, there is a very little possibility to achieve it thanks to budgetary constraints. As Nepal’s programs depend upon external resources with contribution of 77 percent in total budget, there is very nominal budget allocated from national budget.
Finance minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai in his annual budget 2008/09 claimed that he allocated enough budget to meet the target of universal coverage of water and sanitation by 2017, but still there is a lot of shortfall.
“Unfortunately the budget allocated for water and sanitation is too low. Of course, there is huge amount of budget allocated in the budget but the big bulk of amount is going to Melamchi project,” said Lajana Manandhar of Lumnanti. The government of Nepal aims to provide safe drinking water to all by 2017 and three years Interim Plan intends to provide water services to an additional 796,000 people in the year 2009. However, the budget allocated is enough just to expand the reach to 477,000 people.
According to UNDP’s MDG Goals Needs Assessment, the government must make a public investment of US$ 12.6 billion over the next decade if the goals are to be reached. The report also shows that donors must double their funding for development in Nepal over the next ten years.
Given the global economic crisis, there is a very grim possibility to meet the target to meet the MDGs goal by 2017. The aim of the national water Plan 2002-2017 was to meet the increasing demand for drinking water and sanitation. According to this plain, by 2017 the entire population will have access to a water supply of which 27 will have medium to high quality water.
Nepal’s problem is not the availability of water but the one related to management. If Nepal cannot introduce proper management for distribution of water, there will be more conflicts and tensions in future like that of Panchkhal and Dhulikhel.
