JICA set to hand over MWSP water treatment plant within a week

Kathmandu, November 16

After successful completion of functionality and water disinfection tests, Japan International Cooperation Agency is preparing to hand over the Sundarijal-based water treatment plant of Melamchi Water Supply Project to the government within a week.

The project had completed all the mandatory tests of the treatment plant on November 11.

Executive Director at Melamchi Water Supply Development Board Ramakant Duwadi said, “The treatment plant is now ready for operation. So, JICA is preparing to hand it over to the government within a week.”

The construction of the treatment plant had begun in 2014 with loan assistance from JICA.

According to MWSDB, it completed the mandatory 168-hour water disinfection test of the water treatment plant. MWSP had imported chlorine gas from India for the purpose.

As part of the process, 25 to 30 million litres of water was purified using chlorine gas per day. So the treatment plant is now ready for disinfecting water from the Melamchi River anytime the project starts operation.

Due to inadequate water after rainy season Melamchi project had began the test of treatment plant during monsoon by using water from the Bagmati River. Since there was no water supply channels, it drained 30 million litres of treated water back into the Bagmati River per day.

According to the project, it had planned to distribute treated water through water supply pipelines. However, this could not be possible due to technical defects in the pipelines installed by the Project Implementation Directorate at Bhairabchaur Danda of Gokarneshwor Municipality -4. The plant has the capacity of treating 85 million litres of water per day.