Lalitpur, January 6:

Community-based Safe Drinking Water Bottling Project — an innovative project to filter highly iron-contaminated water — has been launched at Koyelacchi neighbourhood in Lalitpur to meet the demand for drinking water in the area.

As many as 300 households are facing water scarcity for a long time and they depend on Nepal Drinking Water Supply Corporation’s tankers for water.

“Though we dug a well, with a hope that we can collect water from it to reduce water scarcity, we could not use its water because of iron contamination,” said Ram Babu Maharjan, a local.

The newly introduced water purification technology will pump water from the well and filter water in bio-sand technology, meeting the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard.

The consumer’s committee set up to regulate the process will filter water and sell in 20-litre jars at Rs 3 each.

This pilot project, which is aimed at completing in six months at an estimated cost of Rs 1.4 million, is supported by the United Nations Habitat Water for Asian Cities Programme, said Prakash Amatya, executive director of the NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation.

Amatya said the success of this project would be considered for replication by the Nepal Drinking Water Supply Corporation.