Water sustains the life on earth, without water no life can sustain ever. Anthropological studies reveal that human civilizations sprouted alongside riverbanks and water has worked as a promoter and protector of human life and civilzation. However, overpopulation and misuse of water resources has now resulted in water shortages and water pollution in many places. Nepal has abundant fresh water resources but still its capital city, Kathmandu, has become a victim of water shortage from a long time. Kathmandu has more than 3 million population demanding 320 million litres of water per day. The existing system has been able to meet just one fourth of the water demand compelling the large part of population to be dependent on ground water. There are about 313 stone sprouts (Dhungedhara) in Kathmandu but only 59 are running rest have gone dried (Adhikari, 2010). Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Ltd (KUKL) is the only body that supplies drinking water to the residents of Kathmandu but, since it hasn’t been able to supply drinking water to every households as per the demand, its solution to the problem is in the form of the water tankers regularly seen on the streets of the city. It has formed the Department of Tankers, under which 23 trucks ferry 90 tankers of water to various dry areas in the Capital for free (Rauniyar, 2011).
Kathmandu’s population is increasing at the rate of 4.7% along with which the water demand is increasing too (CBS, 2011). The Water Supply Corporation of Nepal has tapped all possible sources of water for Kathmandu. To address the issue of water scarcity in Kathmandu, the government of Nepal proposed a project of inter-basin transfer of water from Melamchi River located 40 km north–east of the Kathmandu valley (Khadka and Khanal, 2007). The Kathmandu Melamchi Water supply development board was established in 1998. The board was established to supply drinking water from Melamchi river to Kathmandy valley. But its been more than a decade but the project hasn’t been completed. The Melamchi Project is the only hope of Kathmanduities which will fulfill its resident’s water needs, promising enormous relief, yet it remains a distant dream. The first phase is supposed to be completed by 2014, which will provide 170 million litres of water per day, and the whole project should be completed by 2025, which will supply 510 million litres per day (Rauniyar, 2011). By the time Melamchi project will be completed, Kathmandu resident’s demand for water might be doubled due to population growth and the water shortage problem will still exist then.
The decade long conflict in Nepal led to a rapid population increase in the urban areas of Nepal, Kathmandu being the major one. The preliminary population census of 2011 shows that Kathmandu’s population right now is 1,740,977. With the increase in population the demand for water is also increasing but the supply is the same which has resulted into water shortage. The demand for water in Kathmandu valley is 320 million litres per day but KUKL is supplying only 88.8 million litres per day (32% by ground water and 67% by surface) in the dry season and 118.4 MLD (29% by ground water and 71% by surface) in the wet season. Thus the data shows a water deficit of 78.5% in dry season and 63% in wet season (Subedi, 2010). However, in the VDCs of Kathmandu valley water supply is supported by community water supply, stone sprouts, tube wells, rivers and so on. The limited water supplied by the KUKL in Kathmandu is highly polluted and cannot be drunk without filtering and boiling properly. Kathmandu valley’s water supply system is poorly managed which has led to poor quality water supply and shortage.
The resident’s of capital city of Nepal, a country with abundant water resources, have to wait for hours and hours to get a pitcher full of water. Even the water they get after waiting for long hours is not safe and clean enough to drink directly and use in cooking purposes. Population in Kathmandu is increasing along with the increase in demand for water but supply is still same. Why is there such big gap between supply and demand then? Nepal despite being rich in water resources its urban population are facing water problem. The fact is that, in Kathmandu there is a shortage of water but water is not scarce. Scarcity refers to unavailability of resources or material to manufacture a product but shortage means the reduction in supply of the item. Hence, despite being abundant water resources the supply is less in Kathmandu so there is a shortage of water but water is not actually scarce (Subedi, 2010).
Kathmandu valley is severely suffering from water shortage problem. It is high time that the government should recognize water as a great priority. Water shortage has brought about other consequences major being health related. This issue can turn out to be a big problem and can even disturb a nation’s peace and security if not solved on time by inviting water related conflict in future. Kathmandu’s water shortage can directly hamper Nepal’s overall development process and Human development index can go down due to this. There are several reasons behind the increasing gap between water demand and supply in Kathmandu; environmental, political, economical, technical and anthropogenic causes have resulted into such a severe water problem in Kathmandu. Nepal government need to gurantee the right to water to the people because water is not scarce in Nepal, the problem is just in the supply of water. Government need to invest more and bring effective plans to improve water supply system all over the nation. When Nepal has enough water resources why should people go through the consequences of water shortage? The water shortage problem in Kathmandu is also an outcome of climate change so people need to learn to mitigate its impacts and implement adaptation strategies and also improve their anti-environmental activities like polluting river water. The Melamchi Project is the holy grail of Kathmanduities water needs, promising enormous relief, yet it remains a distant dream so until Melamchi reaches Kathmandu’s household people need to save and conserve available water resources.
Bibliography
- CBS. (2011). Preliminary Result of National Population Census 2011 . Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics.
- Ishwar Rauniyar. (April 23, 2011). All for a drop of water. The Kathmandu Post .Kathmandu
- JICA (1990) Groundwater management project in Kathmandu Valley, Final report, Executive summary, p2. Kathmandu:JICA
- Pramila Subedi. (2010). Drinking Water Management in Newa State. Kathmandu: Centre for Constitutional Dialogue.
- KUKL Annual Report 2067
- Melamchi Annual Report 2010
Thanks to heart-pours for raising the genuine topic. People in Kathmandu are living under great water stress in one hand and private drinking water supply companies are promising rapidly on the other. Why Kathmandu municipality can not regulate and monitor such private companies for price and quality of water. Similarly, the ground water has served a major part of water supply in the capital but it's over-exploitation could lead to serious disaster.
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