‘Govt committed to meeting water demand’

Kathmandu, February 13

Minister for Water Supply and Sanitation Prem Bahadur Singh today said the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited had no choice but to fulfill the government’s responsibility to meet the demand of water supply in the Kathmandu Valley.

Addressing a function organised to mark the eighth anniversary of the KUKL in the capital, he said, “The constitution has guaranteed citizens access to safe drinking water and sanitation and the government should not shy away from its responsibility to safeguard the rights and interests of people. We have KUKL to supply water to all homes.”

KUKL, a public limited company, had obtained a 13-year contract on February 13, 2008 from the Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Management Board to provide water supply and sanitation services in the Valley. The current shareholders of KUKL are the Government of Nepal, municipalities within the Valley, Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Nepal Chamber of Commerce. “The government is ready to solve the problems facing the KUKL. The ministry which I am overseeing now was established to ensure adequate water supply and proper sanitation,” said Singh.

State Minister for Water Supply and Sanitation Dinesh Chandra Yadav stressed on strengthening and upgrading the existing water supply system in the Valley.

The Valley’s water demand is more than 320 million litres per day, while KUKL has been supplying only about 68 million litres every day during the dry season and 118 million litres during the rainy season. There are 166,000 taps in the Valley while water leakage is about 20 per cent, said a KUKL report.