Kathmandu, March 30

Minister for Water Supply and Sanitation Jiban Bahadur Shahi today directed Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited to cut water supply to ministries and government agencies that have not paid water bill dues.

After learning that several ministries and government agencies have not paid their water bill dues, Minister Shahi directed KUKL to serve them a written notice first. If the concerned ministries, departments and other government agencies fail to clear the dues within the given time, the minister has asked KUKL to cut water supply to them.

According to KUKL, ministries and government agencies owed a bill of Rs 1,430,000,000. KUKL needs to recover a total of Rs 423,119,000 from consumers, including government agencies.

Meanwhile, the minister told Melamchi Water Supply Project to complete the project on time. Stating that air pollution caused by installation of water pipelines had caused an adverse impact on public health, the minister instructed Melamchi project to blacktop roads immediately after completing installation of water pipes.

Earlier, on demand of the contractor, the government had provided an additional three million US dollars for the tunnel excavation work of Melamchi project.

Last month, CMC Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna, the contractor for the project, had demanded additional financial support for use of new technology to complete tunnel excavation work by July. It had blamed weak rock formation for delay in tunnel excavation work.

Started in 21 December 2000, the Melamchi Water Supply Project assisted by the Asian Development Bank aims to reduce drinking water shortage in Kathmandu Valley. The Melamchi project envisages supplying 510,000,000 litres of water per day to Kathmandu Valley from the Melamchi, Yangri, and Larke rivers of Sindhupalchowk district. In phase one, the project will supply 170,000,000 litres of water per day to the Valley.