Kathmandu, Feb 22: The Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management has started encouraging all the 753 local governments to prepare plans for the supply of quality potable water to their citizens.    

Department's expert Dr Ranjit Ojha said the local governments have been encouraged to prepare plans and implement them in line with the national programme so as to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals determined by the United Nations.    

The constitution has given the right to the local units to prepare and implement water supply and sanitation projects. Dr Ojha said the National Programme on Water Supply and sanitation has been prepared in a way to make the local government responsible for preparing and implementing the water supply and sanitation projects at the local level.    

Works have been started to that connection at the initiatives of the Ministry, the Department and various governmental and non-governmental organisations working in the drinking water and sanitation sector for making the water supply and sanitation universal, fair and accessible.    

According to the Department, it has brought a dozen apps into use for that purpose. Through the apps, the local governments can gather information on the size of population having access to drinking water, population without access to drinking water, water supply projects in operation, their status, possibilities for expanding their capacity, water sources, the situation of use of water sources, the status of source conservation and the condition of the ground water in places not feasible to be covered by the surface water.    

The local governments can get up-to-date information on the situation of water supply within their borders with the help of the apps, and this will help them prepare local level water supply and sanitation plans.