By: Arjun Subedi

It has been revealed that more than half of the water supplied by the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) in the Valley is untreated. The KUKL, which has been supplying 150 million litres drinking water a day in the Kathmandu Valley, stated that drinking water gets treated completely from the four water treatment centres having the capacity to treat 20 million litres per day. 

Out of the 14 water treatment centres of KUKL, only the water treatment centres in Mahankaal Chaur, Bansbari, Maharajgung and Bode have been treating drinking water. KUKL has been using chlorine to disinfect drinking water after the water treatment centres in Swoyambhu, Pharping, Baneshwor and other areas stopped functioning.
"It is economically difficult to treat water at differing places due to lack of single huge water source," said Rameshwor Shrestha, spokesperson of KUKL, adding, "We are trying to disinfect water in such places using chemicals."

KUKL has been supplying water in the Kathmandu Valley from 24 water treatment centres but 10 treatment centres have been supplying untreated water. KUKL records show that it has been supplying tube well and source water directly to the consumers in Balkhu, Ratnapark, Tripureshwor, Swoyambhu, Tahakhel, Jwagal, Lagan and Lokanthali. These areas consume 50 million litres of water a day. Claiming that the water brought from the source is safe, Shrestha told that the treatment centres have been supplying water from the source directly to the areas beyond the service area of the centres and the centres use chlorine in water from tube well and other sources.

An official of KUKL told that the water treatment centres also do not treat water properly. The official who does not want to disclose his name told that the staffs of the water treatment centres do not test the treated water in the KUKL laboratory as the water is not treated properly. He told that the places like Tripureshwor, Sinamangal, Tahakhel, Patan and Jwagal gets direct supply of tube well and water source.

Spokesperson Shrestha told that each water treatment centre has the capacity to treat 2.5 million litres of water a day but the centres are not able to operate in full capacity due to long electricity load shedding hours. "We have urged the Nepal Electricity Authority for continuous electricity supply in such centres as they are not functioning in full capacity due to load shedding," adds Shrestha.

Experts told that untreated water from the tube wells is not fit for drinking, washing clothes and bathing as well. "Chlorine only kills germs," said environmentalist Suman Shakya, adding, "It is quite harmful to use groundwater by using simple chorine solution." Though it has been said that untreated water is made safe by using chlorine, it is not effective. 
Anil Sthapit, secretary, NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation, said, "Though the water utility say that they supply chlorinated water, the amount of chlorine in the supply water gets nil when it reaches to the taps of consumers." The Ministry of Physical Planning and Works had issued drinking water quality directives to supply quality drinking water within next 5 years but the ministry itself is unaware about the quality of supplied water at present.
Suman Sharma, joint-secretary at the ministry told that the ministry has been unable to study the present situation of supplied water due to financial problem. He said, "We are requesting the Asian Development Bank to provide financial support for the improvement of the water quality." He told that the ministry will establish water treatment centres with priority and monitor the ineffective centres soon.

Source: Nagarik, February 3, 2010