Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, March 14:

A three-day water festival began here today.

Tirtha Raj Sharma, the secretary of ministry of physical planning and works and Keshav Sthapit, the mayor of KMC jointly inaugurated the exhibition of water conservation efforts, a part of the three-day festival. The festival is organised by the KMC and NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation which is participated in by about 30 government authorities, nongovernmental organisations, environment-friendly entrepreneurs and the KMC.

The exhibitors stressed the need to recycle and reuse water to rid valley of scarcity of water.

A seminar was also organised, today, for the mayors, deputy mayors and environment officers of all the municipalities of the country to share experiences and knowledge about water and its uses.

KMC mayor Sthapit blamed the government for being a hurdle to the drinking water projects. "The governments formed at different times did not really want to solve the problem of water scarcity," he said.

Deputy mayor Rajaram Shrestha said that the residents of the Kathmandu are eagerly waiting for the completion of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project but he also expressed his doubt whether the project would help the Kathmanduites at all. He also sought proper actions to save the water leakage which accounts to 41 per cent of the total water supplied here.

Rabin Lal Shrestha, Narayan Manandhar ,Lajana Manandhar and others presented their working papers on the situation of water supply.