Every year Kathmandu denizens face severe water crisis especially in the dry season. It has been a decade and a half since the government invested in the Melamchi Drinking Water Supply Project (MDWSP) to ease out the water crisis of the valley.
However, city dwellers have only got extensions on every deadlines for the project. Stakeholders state that with the completion of the Melamchi project, the valley will have 170 million litres of extra water. However, even that water supply will not be enough to cater to the growing demand of the valley at the time the project is actually operational.
Prolonged problem
It was in 1998 that the feasibility study was completed and MDWSP was formally initiated in January 2001 with the target to be completed in December 2007. As no progress was made even till the deadline, Asian Development Bank (ADB) the main donor agency started to show disinterest in the project. Then, the project was reformed in January 2008 and a new completion date was set for December 2013. The government terminated the Chinese company CRCC-CMIIC JV Company for their failure to complete work within the stipulated period in September 2012. After that the project was terminated and work was halted for one and a half years.
Later the government awarded project to the Italian contractor CMC di Ravenna Company for Rs 7.72 billion and again extended the deadline to September 2016. According to the latest survey report conducted by the Legislative Parliament, only 10.8 kms of tunnel have been constructed of the total 27.5 kms. This constitutes 17.51 per cent of the total work completed while spending 40.28 per cent of project time. The terminated Chinese company had earlier accomplished construction of 6.4 kms of tunnel. The government has also spent about 60 per cent of total project cost — USD 287 million on the project till date.
“According to our observation, the Melamchi project will not be completed by the stipulated date. However, there is hope that the contractors will complete their task if another six months is allowed,” said Rabin Adhikari, Chief of the Development Committee. Citing that the work pace of the consultant is at snail pace, he said, “While the work of excavation of canals should be at 40 m per day from six different places to complete the project on time, the consultant is now excavating at 20 to 25 m per day.” According to him, lack of technical manpower, geographical difficulties, lack of political will and monitoring are the main reasons for continuous delays. “There was lack of coordination and commitment from the government side and contractors are seen reluctant to complete the task on time," said Adhikari.
Citing that the government should introduce a fast track and one door system, he said, “The government should be committed, there should be a proper and frequent monitoring mechanism and all stakeholders should join hand and focus to complete the project.”
Lacking commitment
The government awarded the project to Italian contractor CMC di Ravenna Company in October 2013. However, till date the company has been able to dig only 4.4 kms of tunnel. "We handed over the project to the company as it submitted strong documents and was found competent to work with," said Ghanshyam Bhattarai, Executive Director at MDWSP. He complained, "There is no external problem that delays contractors. We found that there is a lack of commitment from the contractors to complete projects on the set deadline of April 2016." Citing that they offered an incentive scheme for motivating them, he said, "We offer them an incentive of 0.05 per cent of the total contract cost per day if they complete the project before September 2016."
Bhattarai pointed out that the contractors lacked mobilising manpower, equipment, construction material and site management. However, he is optimistic that if the contractors speed up work, the project can be completed by September 2016. He informed that work of constructing water treatment plants, road network expansion and improvement and social empowerment activities in affected communities is in progress.To maintain the safety and quality of water, the government also plans to construct a water filter centre at Sundarijal, which will have the capacity to filter 85 million litres of water each day.
Too little, too late
According to data at Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL), the demand for drinking water in the valley is 350 million litres per day, whereas it can only provide 120 million litres in the dry season and 200 million litre in the wet season. Government officials also stated that of the total provided water, 40 per cent is wasted due to leakage.
Water Expert Prakash Amatya stated that the water woes in the valley will not end even if the Melamchi drinking water project is completed. He said, "Melamchi water will just prevent the situation of water woes getting worse by the time it is introduced." Pointing out that Melamchi is not a sustainable solution, he said, "The government should not forget about underground water which supplement the resources in the valley. Along with Melamchi the government should intensify preserving underground water resources and the traditional water system."
He stressed on the need to assure water quality and quantity with reasonable tariffs. Citing that water has been politicised, Amatya said, “The government and concerned authorities are playing foul by not completing the project on time.” He said, “Unless consumers are aware and actively involved in pressurising the government, the projects won’t be completed any time soon.” According to him, there should be management reforms in government offices with lesser influence from political parties. Moreover, the government should intensify rainwater harvesting, water recharge and conservation campaigns to sustain water resources.
Agreeing with this, Bhattarai said, "As Melamchi will not be enough, we have already identified Yangri and Larke Rivers as additional sources. We have also done financial closure to conduct these Environment Impact Assessment studies." According to him, the valley will then get total 680 million litrse of water if the projects succeed.
Enhancing distribution
Besides tunnel intake and treatment plant construction, the government has initiated the work of bulk distribution system, network distribution and sewers line management projects under Project Implementation Directorate (PID). PID is planning to have 77 kms of bulk distribution and nine reservoirs to check leakage and ensure quality water distribution.
“Recently, we have already appointed contractors for 55 kms of distribution and six reservoirs. In a few weeks we will be appointing contractors for the remaining 22 km and three reservoirs at Kirtipur, Bhaktapur and Thimi,” informed Tej Raj Bhatt, Project Director at PID of Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited. Bhatt said, “The work of replacing pipelines within the Ring Road is going on. We have already replaced 160 kms of pipeline in the targeted 622 km to ensure minimum water leakage.”
According to him, they plan to reduce leakage from 40 per cent to 15 per cent. “To ensure minimum leakage, we will be placing bulk metering systems for the locality and ensure leakage is not more than 15 per cent. For better and transparent construction, we will take 15 per cent collateral from contractors too. Furthermore, we are using rust free pipelines made up of ductile iron and polythene,” he added.