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Multiple issues hit multibillion project Melamchi
KATHMANDU, AUG 25 -
It now appears that the Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP), only answer to the Capital’s perennial water woes, is unlikely to be completed by 2013. Thanks to the slow construction of a diversion tunnel and frequent obstructions by locals.
A year after work started on the 27-km diversion tunnel that would bring water from the Melamchi river to Kathmandu valley, only 116 metres of the tunnel have been complete.
Looking at the regular obstruction, the contractor—China Railway 15 Bureau Group—has proposed extension by another six months to the scheduled plan of four years and three months. The government had awarded the construction of the tunnel to the Chinese company at the rate of Rs. 4.28 billion. The project is intended to bring water from Melamchi River in Sindhupalchowk district through a 26.5-km tunnel to Sundarijal in Kathmandu Valley. “Given the slow pace of the construction, it is unlikely that the 32-billion-rupee project will meet its 2013 deadline,” said a senior official in the project. According to a source at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW), the project is already a year late even if the construction schedule is followed strictly. As per the schedule, five metres of tunnel should be constructed per day.
The deadline for completing work on the tunnel, which will bring 170 million litres of water to Kathmandu Valley every day, is September 2013. Around 27 percent of construction of the MWSP will be done with the completion of the tunnel.
The much hyped project has been mired in controversy ever since its inception in 2002. The deadline of the project has been revised at least three times, which has increased the project costs as well as verification claims by the contractors.
Thanks to controversies, three of the project’s original funding agencies—the World Bank, Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and Norwegian Agency for Development (NORAD)—have withdrawn from the project. The World Bank quit in 2002 while SIDA and NORAD did so in 2005.
After Jana Andolan II, the project was again stalled when then Minister for Works and Physical Planning Hisila Yami terminated the agreement with Severn Trent, a British company, for management of Valley water distribution.
Project officials say continuous obstruction by locals without valid reasons is the main reason for the delay. “Each time we negotiate with the agitating groups and reach an agreement, a new disgruntled group of locals comes up with new demands,” said a project official.
“Such is the level of local interference that,” said an official, “when a local she-goat had a miscarriage, people sought compensations, claiming that it has happened due to explosion in the tunnel works.”
The project has earmarked Rs 420 million for social development of the areas that are affected by the project. Each year, 14 Village Development Committees (VDCs) in the Melamchi area get Rs 2 million each from the project. But that still hasn’t helped.
“Locals think that the project should look into their personal financial crisis, take care of a laundry list of facilities, from hospitals, schools, to sponsor a local volleyball competition. In such a case, how can we make any progress?” the official asked.
There is a high-level committee whose job is to work as a bridge between the project and the locals. The committee has representation of the locals also. “Instead of working to solve the problem, most of the members of the committee seek benefits from the projects, including vehicles. They do not care what is going on in the field,” said a project official.
Bhola Chalise, an economist, says “the engineering approach” to address the concerns of the locals hasn’t helped. “There should have been more dialogue between the community and the project officials early on,” said Chalise. “The disturbance occurring in Melamchi illustrates that unless we take local level politicians into confidence large infrastructure projects can’t move ahead.”
Following increasing disturbances, the government has decided to set up police stations at each audit point of the tunnel. Already, two police stations have been set up in Sundarijal and Sindhu.
Other than the local interference, the trouble also extends to Kathmandu. According to a project official, misuse of the project vehicles is rampant. “A director of the project is always busy arranging vehicles for political leaders, senior bureaucrats and other influential people. The project has more than five dozen high-end vehicles and every senior political leader has his eye on them.”
To others, there is a much larger story in the Melamchi stalemate and former Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat believes it all started way back in the mid-90s. “Starting with the demise of Arun III, a certain section of the society began to overly politicize development projects and large infrastructure development. That has severely crippled us.”
Posted on: 2010-08-26 08:34
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