By: Mahesh Chaurasiya

Kathmandu: Many hand pumps, tube wells and borings in the Kathmandu Valley are getting dried up due to declining groundwater level. According to the technicians, it is difficult to reach water level less than 50 feet below. Earlier, the water level was at 20-30 feet. There is no more groundwater in places like Kalanki, Lagankhel and Sitapaila in Kathmandu. Dug wells, tube wells and hand pumps are out of function due to decrease in groundwater level.

Bilekhan Roy, a technician at Pashupati Rower Pump Servicing Koteshwor told that most of the old tube wells in the Kathmandu Valley are dry and useless. He added that the demand of installing new tube wells is increasing due to acute water scarcity. He told that it is difficult to reach water at the depth of 80 feet in Koteshwor, 100 feet in Pepsi Cola and 120 feet in Gothatar areas. He claimed that the valley sees installation of 6000 to 7000 tube wells daily yet the demand has not decreased.

Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) has also stated about 15% decrease in water production from groundwater sources. Spokesperson at the KUKL Rameshwor Shrestha told that KUKL used to extract 24 million litres of groundwater daily. “Water collection from 57 deep tube wells of KUKL which are at about 200 feet deep has decreased due to falling groundwater level,” said Shrestha.
Pratap Singh Tated, an expert of groundwater in the Department of Irrigation told that groundwater level has decreased due to haphazard construction of deep tube wells. “Housing and apartment companies are extracting groundwater by installing tube wells hazardously,” said Tated, adding, “They do not have any idea about the minimum distance to be maintained between the tube wells.” The government neither has any kind of standards for tube well distance or any kind of monitoring mechanism. The government has not been able to regulate haphazard extraction of groundwater from tube wells and lacks plans to prevent groundwater level from depletion.
Navaraj Shrestha, a senior groundwater expert at Groundwater Resources Development Project under the Ministry of Water Resources said, “At the present condition when all the surface water sources are used up, there is no alternative to groundwater source.”
“Groundwater should be recharged to prevent it from depletion,” said Shrestha to Kantipur, adding, “Lands under the hills near the Kathmandu valley have been identified for groundwater recharge but the works of recharge has not started yet. “Rainwater should be harvested so that it can be used at times of necessity. Rainwater recharged into the ground remains stored for future use,” he added.

Source: Kantipur, June 23, 2009