By: Krishna Bhandari

Kathmandu: The Kathmanduites are angry after the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) increased water tariff without bringing any improvement in water supply in the Kathmandu Valley. The Kathmanduites are facing drinking water problem as they cannot operate motor pumps to draw water from pipelines due to electricity load shedding.

Stating that consumers should get drinking water with ease as water is a basic right of the people not a commodity of business, the consumers have expressed their anger. The general public have complains that the management has not shown interest even though there is supply of sewer contaminated water from the taps. The KUKL has forced the consumers to pay Rs. 540 monthly by hiking water tariff without fulfilling water demand of the consumers.
KUKL consumer Sushil Charan Pradhan told that the chief of KUKL's Tripureshwor branch misbehaved with him for complaining about water supply problems. Another consumer Dal Bahadur GC told that the KUKL has to pay high price in the coming days if tries to give additional financial burden to the consumers without fulfilling the water demand. The consumers have regarded water tariff hike as black marketing.
The KUKL has been claiming that load shedding is the major cause for water tariff hike. The consumers blamed that the government has not controlled the mushrooming NGOs/INGOs that are deceiving and charging money from the consumers in the name of providing drinking water facility.
Plant manager at the KUKL Mukunda Bhandari told that the KUKL is supplying 90 to 110 million litres of water daily in the Kathmandu Valley. Experts say that the drinking water problem will get severe in the dry season. The consumers told that they will get relief to some extent if the government shows concern in controlling water leakage. However, the KUKL claims that it has not hiked water tariff too much as it used to charge Rs. 75 from the consumers every month for consuming a minimum of 10,000 litres of water and now it is charging Rs. 27 for a minimum of 5,000 litres of water excluding 50% sewerage charge.
The KUKL staffs told that the KUKL is compelled to keep sewer and drinking water pipelines run close to each other as roads in the Kathmandu Valley are narrow. Plant manager Bhandari told that the government has not taken any concrete steps to solve the problem.

Source: Nepal Samacharpatra, February 2, 2009