Bheri Lifting Water Project to start soon

By Nabin Sudedi

Surkhet, Jan 13 : The process to build the Bheri Lifting Water Project is going to start soon. The contract process is about to start, and the design review of the water supply project has already reached its final stage.

The construction process is about to move forward after an expert team from the Department of Water and Sewerage Management, the World Bank, the consulting company and the Birendranagar Municipality, among others, conducted an on-site inspection of the project site on Sunday.

The process of re-consultation from experts on the detailed project report (DPR) of the project has reached its final stage. It aims to provide a long-term easy supply of drinking water to the population that is likely to increase over the next 30 years in Birendranagar, the largest municipality in the province.

Since it is a large investment project, the Department of Water and Sewerage Management, which is in charge of implementing the project, sought the opinion of experts for re-consultation in an effort to make sure that the design doesn’t fail under any condition. 

The project will be completed in two sections at a cost of Rs. 6 billion. It is about to go into the implementation stage after the design is fixed except for the change in the place where the intake will be constructed in the period added by the department to review the prepared DPR, for which the budget has been earmarked. 

The Federal Ministry of Water Supply, with the loan support of the World Bank, will bring water from the Bheri River to Birendranagar Municipality with lifting technology under the Water Sector Governance and Infrastructure Support Project at a cost of US$100 million from the Fiscal Year 2079/80 in partnership with the federal, province and local levels.

According to this, the federal government will manage e 80 per cent of the investment and the provincial government and concerned local level 20 per cent.Karnali Provincial Government and Birendranagar Municipality have jointly allocated Rs. 5 million for the current fiscal year under the Mutual Fund. The municipality has arranged the budget for the expansion of the access road to the project site and the construction of necessary infrastructure.

In the first phase of the project, which aims to provide sustainable and improved water supply and sanitation services, as well as increase the locals’ capacity in service delivery, two intakes will be constructed at a depth of seven meters from the river surface by diverting the water flow.

After that, a water treatment system will be constructed at a distance of about 400 meters from the intake, and a reserve tank will be constructed at Amrut Dadan along with pipeline expansion. 

Similarly, in the first phase of the work, the main water transmission line will be extended from the tank to Birendranagar. 

In the second phase, there is a plan to extend the transmission line on both sides of Ratna Highway and Surkhet-Jumla road in Birendranagar Valley.

The rest of the distribution system and District Metered Area (DMA) will also constructed. It is estimated that the first and second phases will cost about Rs. 3 billion each. Bheri water will be pumped to a treatment tank at a height of 400 meters. 

After that, the water will be pumped into the reserve tank to be built in Amritdanda through a seven-kilometre-long pipe.

A 550-mm capacity pipe will be laid at Amritdanda and extended to the main tank. The tanks to be built in Amritdanda will be three reserve tanks with a combined capacity of three million. Two megawatts of electricity will be required for lifting.

Salikram Paudel, the chief of the project, said that water from the Bheri River will reach the valley within three years of the start of project construction. He added that the technical work for the first phase of work has already started. Various studies were conducted including the search for sources for a long-term solution to the drinking water problem in Birendranagar.

Out of which, the best option is to bring water from Bheri river to the valley, said Mohanmaya Dhakal, Mayor of Birendranagar Municipality. 

Kulamani Devkota, Chairman of Surkhet Valley Water Consumers' Association, said that the current structure cannot meet the water demand in the city and that the construction of the project should not be delayed.

Due to the increasing population density in Birendranagar, there is a growing problem of drinking water supply. Currently, the daily water demand is 320 litres per second, but the supply is 153 litres per second.