Madhyapur Thimi, February 1:

The locals of Lokanthali, Gatthaghar, Shanti Basti and other areas in Madhyapur Thimi municipality have not been getting adequate supply of drinking water for the last

three weeks.

The water being supplied by Kathmandu Upatyka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) is not sufficient, forcing them to buy drinking water from tankers while paying monthly charges to the KUKL.

The furious consumers today staged a sit-in in front of the KUKL-Thimi, Gatthaghar branch to draw the attention of the foreign-managed water distribution body towards their plight.

The consumers today threatened that they would intensify their agitation if KUKL failed to provide enough drinking water within a week.

Kedar Khadka, a resident of Lokanthali, Madhyapur Thimi Municipality-16, said the officers had been ignoring their complaints, forcing them to launch agitation.

According to Khadka, KUKL-Thimi branch had been supplying water five days a week for an

hour daily.

“The drinking water supply schedule has been prepared viewing the electricity supply hours,” he said, adding, “Often KUKL supplies drinking water at night disrupting our sleep.”

Some of the residents said that though they had paid Rs 7,000 each on getting a drinking water connection, they were not getting adequate supply.

Ranjan Shrestha from Thimi said, “We have been buying water from tankers, paying Rs 1,500 per tank due to water scarcity.”

However, Umesh Babu Marahattha, chief of KUKL-Thimi, Gatthaghar branch

denied the allegations, stating that they had been providing enough water but some residents were using electric motors, affecting proportionate distribution.

Currently, the KUKL Thimi branch generates 11 million

litres of water from two boring sites — 10 million litres from Bode and one million litres

from Lokanthali and supplying four million litres to Kathmandu, two million litres to Bha-

ktapur and four million litres to Thimi.

The consumers have sought a monitoring mechanism to check the use of electric motors to pump water supplied by the water monopoly.