Ensure Sustainable Water Management

Water woes in the Kathmandu Valley are acute these days as in the past. The Melamchi Drinking Water Project has almost been completed but there are still snags. The national pride project, which started in November 2001, began distributing water to the Kathmandu Valley in March 2021. The project has a capacity of supplying 170 million litres of water a day. The people were elated when they enjoyed the baptism of the supply of water from the Melamchi River but their elation turned into frustration when the water supply came to an end in June of that year after the flash floods destroyed the infrastructure of the project, including its dam and water treatment plant. Since then, the water supply from the Melamchi has been erratic. Now also, there is no water supply from the Melamchi River. 

The scarcity of drinking water in the Kathmandu Valley can be attributed to burgeoning urbanisation driven mainly by migration from the rural areas, increasing population, over-exploitation of groundwater and the like. There is constant boring for underground water, resulting in the subsidence of aquifers. It is surmised that the water table is shrinking 80 centimetres a year. With this, groundwater has been contaminated with concentrated nitrates and arsenic. These chemicals are harmful to the human body. Drilling deeper and deeper for groundwater for drinking and other purposes has also affected the sources of stone spouts (dhunge dharas). There are fewer than 300 stone spouts left in the Kathmandu Valley, out of which over half have dried up. 

Preserving water sources

Stone spouts were the only sources of water in the past. With the introduction of the piped water supply system, the stone spouts were disregarded. And with construction works for big buildings and what with negligence, the stone spouts began to dry up. The famous Sundhara stone spouts dried up with the construction of the Sanchaya Kosh building. Climate change has also affected the water supply in the Kathmandu Valley. Climate change has made the monsoons irregular. Climate change has also affected the Himalayan ecosystem, which is a source of water for water bodies like rivers. 

Water is a common good. The problem of water is not only limited to Nepal; it has become a worldwide problem. That is why, the Sustainable Development Goals have also encapsulated the water goal. SDG 6 aims at ensuring clean drinking water and sanitation for all. In fact, water is linked to every aspect of human life such food security, public health and economic and political stability. It would be relevant to mention the UN Conference on Water (March 22-24, 2023). The conference proved to be common forum for governments, businesses and communities to make commitments to a sustainable future for water in order to achieve global water and sanitation goals. The conference aimed at tackling the global water crisis by dealing with the scarcity of water, pollution, natural disasters (three fourths of natural disasters are induced by water) and climate change, and by re-establishing water as a global common good. The conference adopted the Water Action Agenda aimed at safeguarding the world’s most valuable shared resource – water. The agenda included nearly 700 commitments ranging from strengthening monitoring and data systems to beefing up infrastructure resilience through capacity-building efforts. 

The government has accentuated the concept of integrated wager resources management in the National Water Resources Strategy, National Water Plan and other relevant policies. The Water Resources Policy of Nepal, 2020 outlines 11 strategies for sustainable and optimal use of water resources. The government has also initiated the protection of existing water sources by including climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in water supply projects as a national policy. But proper institutional arrangements and the implementation mechanism are not robust enough to materialise the concept. Consequently, the government has not succeeded in its endeavour to deal with challenges relating to water: water scarcity, deteriorating water quality and water-induced natural disasters such as floods.  

The government should focus on preserving water resources through effective action plans, policies, innovative technology and community engagement. The community engagement in community forestry is exemplary, which is a matter of pride. This is mostly responsible for improving the community forestry sector. Such public engagement should also be emulated in the water sector. It should design a green infrastructure mechanism, a mechanism that aims at restoring stone spouts and ponds, restoring adjacent forest areas and green areas and counteracting the over-exploitation of aquifers so that the water table may not sink further. Now, emphasis is laid on water use and infrastructure. The government should emphasise water conservation and management on a sustainable scale. Further, the government should revamp the institutional framework and the implementation mechanism for sustainable water management.

Rainwater harvesting

Rainwater harvesting could be a good option for overcoming water woes to some extent in the Kathmandu Valley. The Valley residents should, therefore, be motivated to go for rainwater harvesting. And it may be made mandatory for new houses to install a rainwater harvesting facility.  The government says that even the Melamchi water will not be able to meet the growing demands for water in the Kathmandu Valley. The government is planning to bring water from the Yangri and Larke Rivers to the Kathmandu Valley. These rivers will supply 340 million litres of water on a daily basis. But the Valley denizens are not confident that the Yangri and Larke drinking water project will be completed anytime soon. The Melamchi project is still wobbling. 

The Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) is responsible for managing drinking water in Kathmandu. But the management of supplying water to households in Kathmandu seems to be poor. Some households get more than enough water, while others get no water at all. If only the distribution mechanism could be made more systematic, the water woes could be mitigated to a great extent. Further, the quality of water is often questioned. Sometimes, the water contains dirt and sediments, making it unfit for drinking or other uses. So the management of the KUKL also needs to be improved.  

(Maharjan has been regularly writing on contemporary issues for this daily since 2000.)