Bhaktapur, April 21:

The Bhaktapur branch of the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) is planning to dig up three wells to help solve the water crisis in the area.

While there is a demand of seven million litres of water per day in Bhaktapur district, the KUKL is meeting only 40 per cent of the demand, resulting in drinking water crisis, Nabin Lal Joshi, branch chief of KUKL told this daily today.

According to Joshi, the branch office is supplying two million litres of water from Bansbari in Bhaktapur, 300,000 litres from Jagate, Bhaktapur, and 200,000 litres from Bode in Madhyapur Thimi.

The long-term solution for this problem is digging up wells in different places, he said, adding that the office has already forwarded proposal to the head office in this regard.

“We have not been able to pump and supply water regularly due to load-shedding,” he said, adding, “The farmers in Bhaktapur, who are main suppliers of fresh vegetables to the Kathmandu citizens, also take away the water from the springs and rivers during the dry seasons for irrigation of their farm land leaving very little water for the KUKL to collect to distribute it to the costumers.”

KUKL is a recently formed body authorised to supply water in the Kathmandu valley and raise water tarrif.