Kaski, September 29:

Come Dashain, over 34,000 people of Lekhnath Municipality here will be able to get piped water.

If everything goes as planned, the Rs 208 million Lekhnath Small Town Water Supply and Sanitation Project (LSTWSSP) will distribute over 6,000 lines by the end of this year.

“We are determined to start distribution of water by Saptami of Dashain this year. We want to tell the whole country that drinking water through public participation is possible,” the chairman of the LSTWSSP Consumers’ Group, Shaligram Paudel, who is also a former mayor of the municipality, said.

According to him, Lekhnath has the worst water distribution system among the 58 municipalities of the country.

A total of 3,119 persons have requested the piped water lines through the consumers’ group

and it is estimated that the latter will distribute 9,727 private lines by 2020.

The local community has spent Rs 44 million for the project, out of which Rs 38 million has been lent by the Urban Development Fund. Construction at the intake, plain sedimentation tank and reservoir tanks at Lapsi Danda and Danda Nak has been completed, while transmission and distribution pipelines, valve chambers and public toilets are under construction.

Paudel, however, said that the project has been making a tardy progress.

He said the consumers’ group has not yet accepted applications for community taps.

A consumer, Hit Kumari Baral, said she hikes 30 minutes everyday to fetch potable water. According to her, though water is supplied through community taps, it is not fit for drinking.

Chandra Bahadur KC, the Town Project chief, said the consumers’ effort is praiseworthy as without it the plan would not have been successful.