Water-supplying staff don't use their own supply

They use jar-filled mineral water at home and office

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, October 15

Forget about the shortage and irregularity of drinking water supplied in the Kathmandu valley. It is reported to be unsafe and dangerous to health concerns due to the chemicals, viruses and bacteria contaminated in drinking water. Even the staffs of the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL), the only water supplying body, choose jar-filled mineral water for use to avoid the hazard.

Ordinary people are compelled to use such substandard water silently at a time when water supply is hitting hard or unaware of the slow poison contaminated in water.

Ramesh Pradhan, an official at the KUKL, Lalitpur, said that he was also doubtful of the quality of drinking water supplied to the people. “We also use jar water in our office. The drinking water pipes are very vulnerable to contamination with leaks of sewerage pipe installed along with or adjoining to the KUKL pipes,” he said.

Rabin Lal Shrestha of Water Aid Nepal said that only 27 per cent of the total population in Kathmandu was provided with safe drinking water. “Rest of them are forced to have shortage and unsafe drinking water,” he said. “This is a slow-poison to the people.”

We use branded jar-filled water for drinking, said Bishnu Kumar Karki, technical officer at the KUKL, Lalitpur. “We are forced to use contaminated water at our homes. If we go on unraveling the facts, there will be a chain of lists of responsible authorities and bodies to manage the problem,” he said.

The treatment plants are installed following the reservoirs to treat water before they are supplied. The major three treatment plants installed at Mahankal Chaur Reservoir, Bansbari Reservoir and Bode Reservoir are not in proper use, said a KUKL official, adding that it was off-line.

When asked the Chief of the KUKL about the quality of the water supplied to the cities, he said that water reserved in the reservoirs was in accordance with the WHO standards.

“We are supplying water to the people, not the waste,” said Rudra Gautam, Managing Director at the Central Office of the KUKL, Kathmandu.

As this scribe questioned him-Does it mean that KUKL is supplying safe drinking water to the people?, Gautam remained silence. Surprisingly, there were branded jars of drinking water in the KUKL central office rooms.

After a while, Gautam said that there might be contamination on the routes to the homes of people. He referred to contact to the Manager of the KUKL Laboratory for the details about the quality of water supplied in the city.

Informing that lab is in a sorry state, Kiran Prakash Amatya, manager of the KUKL lab and chief at the Sewerage Operation Department, KUKL in Lalitpur admitted that there was contamination of bacteria, viruses and chemicals in the supplied water. “The pipes installed for supplying drinking water date back to Bir Shumsher Rana,” he said. “The growing unmanaged city planning has also forced to ground the water pipes and sewerage pipes nearly together.”

KUKL has been unable to replace the drinking water pipes installed at the regime of Rana, who was Prime Minister of Nepal from 1885 to 1901. “Even the newer pipes would be rusted and damaged in five to ten years due to the composition of soil in the Kathmanu valley,” said Karki.