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The matter of water
- NOTE OF DISSENT
JUN 27 -
One is appalled at the long queues of empty vessels waiting to be filled with drinking water. These queues, some of which are over 100 metres long, have become a common sight in recent times. Some media by publishing pictures of the empty containers lined up waiting for water have highlighted the sorry plight of Kathmandu’s residents these days as far as drinking water is concerned. There is no guarantee that the drinking water situation will ease anytime soon despite tall talk by those who lead the government and are directly responsible for meeting some of the basic needs of the people. The situation can improve only with the completion of the much-hyped Melamchi project which is expected to supply the much needed drinking water to the residents of the Valley.
Drinking water is one of the most basic of basic needs of the people; yet all through the years, despite rosy promises, the residents of the Valley have been denied adequate water supply. The drinking water agency that handled the water distribution for years has not been able to meet the people’s demands for this most fundamental of their needs. To think that water was at one time freely available in the city with the autocratic regimes of those days constructing public water taps from where the people could fetch as much water as they wanted. To charge money for water was considered a “sin”, and giving the thirsty a drink was considered a virtuous thing to do.
Times have changed, so have our ways of thinking. What was virtue once has now become commercialised, and the legally constituted water supply agency in the capital has no qualms over charging money for not supplying any water. Water is made available once a week, once in five days or once in three days, depending where one lives. But in some areas in the city, water has not been coming out of the tap for months, yet the water supply agency makes the people pay for non-supply of water. Neither consumer groups nor civil society in the country have anything to say about that.
It is not as if water experts and engineers were unaware of the situation. Years ago, those who took active interest in the welfare of the people but stayed away from politics had warned that with the rapid increase in the population of the Kathmandu Valley, the time had come to come up with water supply projects that would meet the needs of the Valley. But thanks to vested interests among those who run the government, little attention was paid to these voices of reason. It is obviously not easy to meet the present water supply demand of over 150,000 cubic metres of water every day 365 days a year. The population of the Kathmandu Valley is increasing at an alarming rate with the result that all possible water sources are drying up or will soon be drying up including shallow and deep underground water sources.
Most political leaders seem to be drawn towards big foreign assisted water projects, if only because there is a lot of scope to “make” (legally?) money in such projects. The Melamchi project, which is expected to bring some 175,000 cubic metres of water to the Valley, could prove inadequate after 2012, that is, even before it is completed. (This is just like the international terminal building at the airport which opened in 1990 but which was originally envisaged to become inadequate by 1990. The terminal building should have come into operation much before 1990 as the Melamchi drinking water project should have, but the conflict of interest between the donors and Nepal’s rulers delayed completion.) The fact is that the water supply from Melamchi alone will not suffice for the Valley after two years because of the rising population and unregulated manner in which houses and buildings are coming up in the Valley.
As one who pays for the inadequate water supply (thankfully we get piped water once in five or six days), we also have to pay monthly charges for the upkeep and maintenance of the sewerage system. The water supplied to us is contaminated and dirty and there is little doubt that sewage seeps into the worn out water supply pipes. This has happened in a number of places in the city areas. This leads one to wonder what is done with the sewerage system charges collected. With the kind of revenue generated by the sewerage charges, the concerned would have been expected to inspect the system from time to time and carry out necessary cleaning so as to ensure proper waste disposal and also that sewage does not seep into the drinking water supply pipes. But this would be expecting too much from our authorities who know how to collect taxes and fees but know little about the need to provide the required services to the people in return.
Residents in many localities have to take their own initiative and approach the ward office which in turn directs them to the sewerage cleaning unit in Jawalakhel. The cleaning is then done, but not for free as part of their duty. The personnel who clean the sewerage system usually have to be paid. Because of the all the fuss involved, cleaning of the sewerage system does not take place for months, if not years, in most of the localities in the capital. No wonder the water supply in a number of places in the capital is contaminated and will remain so until the authorities make it a point to undertake periodic inspection of both the water supply and the drainage systems. But it will be asking too much of our governing agencies to take preventive action when even political leaders deem it wise to resolve matters of crucial national importance only at the eleventh hour.
The drinking water supplied by the official agency through outdated water pipes is said to be unhygienic and unfit for drinking. A survey conducted in 2008 said that over 47 percent of the piped water supplied to households was unfit for drinking. The percentage by now must have increased. But we are yet to be told what the Kathmandu Water Supply Scheme or those government agencies in charge of people’s health are doing about it. In addition, there has been a boom in the bottled water trade, but how safe is the water supplied in bottles? Lack of coordination among ministries as well as between the concerned agencies and the government is largely to blame for the present state of affairs in water supply and sewage disposal. And this is true not merely in these two areas but also encompasses a much larger area where better coordination would bring much needed relief to the people. But who cares about the people as long as power is the sole goal?
Posted on: 2010-06-28 09:30
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