Kathmandu, January 12:

The UN-Habitat, the United Nation’s Shelter Programme, today disclosed that it has been approached by various government and semi-government authorities for support.

“We have received proposals from some government and semi-government organisations,” said Dr Roshan Raj Shrestha, the chief technical advisor of UN-Habitat, talking to this daily.

The Department of Water Supply and Sanitation has sought support to prepare and finalise a revised NGO policy and guideline, prepare and finalise revised regulation on drinking water supply, intervention in Small Town Water Supply and Sanitation Project, capacity building on water quality monitoring and national level arsenic mitigation programme.

And the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction is also seeking support for rainwater harvesting, poverty mapping and base mapping by helping prepare poverty map and for updating GIS base-map and suggesting sub-projects in alleviate poverty.

The Urban Environment Improvement Programme is also looking for support for poverty mapping and gender mainstreaming in UEIP towns.

The Kathmandu Town Development Centre needs support for preparation of GIS-based Digital map of Kathmandu Valley.

On the other hand, the Town Development Fund is looking for support for capacity building of the WATSAN Users’ Committee in Small Town Water Supply Sanitation Project areas.

In the same way, the Nepal Water Supply Corporation is on the way to detailed engineering designs and drawing for water treatment plants for Pokhara and Butwal; and capacity building on water quality testing and monitoring.

“We are very happy to work with government and non-government agencies and hope that we could bring a substantive change in the water and sanitation scene,” Shrestha said.

He also said that Nepal has been successful in drawing the biggest sum of budget among the five countries in the Asia Pacific region.

UN-Habitat, as the sponsor and co-implementing agency of the project, shall allocate US $500,000 per year for the implementation of the project till the end of 2010, Shrestha said.