Pvt firm to supply drinking water in capital

Kathmandu, January 3:

The House of Representatives today passed the Nepal Drinking Water Corporation (third amendment) Bill 2006 to amend the Nepal Drinking Water Corporation Act 1989.

The Bill aims at handing over management of the corporation to a private party and to hand over the job of supplying drinking water in the Kathmandu valley to a non-governmental authority.

The Bill will turn an Act after Speaker Subas Nembang authenticates it .

Though some MPs, including a few from the UML, objected the provision to hand over the management to a non-governmental organisation, the House has passed the Bill by a simple majority.

UML MPs Prakash Jwala and Ananda Pokhrel had left from the session while the Bill was voted. Earlier, they criticised the provision claiming that it is a wrong idea to provide the authority to any non-governmental organisation to supply drinking water. They argued it is the job of the government. Jana Morcha Nepal led by Chitra Bahadur KC and Nepal Workers and Peasant Party MPs voted against the Bill.

The MPs have flayed the government’s role to hand over the management to a foreign company for supplying drinking water in the Kathmandu valley.

“How can the government hand over the responsibility to a non- governmental institution as supplying water is the job of the government?,” Jwala and Pokhrel asked.

They have claimed that since it was the right of the people to get parable drinking water from the government it cannot escape from the responsibility. The government has been planning to hand over the job to the Britain- based Severn Tent Water International Private Limited for $ 8.5 million .

During the special hour, MPs flayed the government and the Ministry of Education and Sports for not appointing officials in Tribhuvan University.