Building a drinking water project is a challenging task; making it sustainable is even more challenging
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Angna Mauwa Greater Pumping Drinking Water Project in Tumbewa Rural Municipality, Panchthar, on Monday. The project is expected to benefit 1,600 households in wards 1, 2 and 3 of the rural municipality.
The PM said the project would ensure people's access to clean drinking water, thus achieving the sustainable development goals. Access to pure drinking water in both the rural areas and urban centres is still a far cry for many. The PM stressed the need to construct river-based and small- and medium-scale drinking water projects at the local levels.
As per the 15th periodic plan spanning 2019/20 to 2023/24, the government has a plan of providing 99 per cent of the population with clean drinking water facility. Minister of Water Supply Umakanta Chaudhary also stressed the need to waive electricity tariffs on lifting and pumping water for drinking purposes.
It is estimated that over 90 per cent of the total population in the country has access to piped drinking water. But the government still needs to do more to ensure clean and pure drinking water for all.
People in developing countries like Nepal face an acute shortage of clean drinking water during the dry season, and they are also forced to consume contaminated or muddy water during the rainy season.
Groundwater harvesting in the plain region of Nepal is the best solution to addressing the shortage of drinking water faced by millions of people living there. According to UN World Water Development Report 2022, of the planet's fresh water, 99 per cent is found underground, where the quality is generally good, safe and affordable without requiring advanced treatment.
However, over-extraction of underground water can have devastating consequences, leading to land subsidence and conflicts to scarce supplies.
Although the Nepal government has made heavy investment in ensuring clean drinking water even in the rural areas, most of the projects go kaput after a couple of years due to poor management from the concerned water management committees or water users' groups at the community level, especially in the hilly areas. The water tanks or reservoirs are filled with ferns, mud or sediments, and heavy rains during the monsoon wash away the gravity-based pipelines.
These are the major problems the local water management committees face quite often, and they cannot repair them in time due to lack of adequate revolving fund and skilled hands. The small-scale drinking water projects, mainly run by the so-called lower caste communities and marginalised groups in the hilly areas, have been found to be dysfunctional after sometime as they lack resources and skills to repair them, initially funded either by the government or donor agencies. These groups cannot raise enough funds on their own for their sustainability due to their poor living condition. The Angna drinking water project, costing over Rs 452 million, also should not face a similar problem as faced by other drinking water projects in Palpa and Nawaparasi. Building a drinking water project using electricity is a challenging task, and making it sustainable is even more challenging.
So, the concerned government agency must train the locals for its effective management.
Readying Everest
Despite the gloom facing the mountaineering sector due to the war in Ukraine, which has led to cancellation of expeditions by Ukrainian, Russian and Polish teams, entrepreneurs still expect a modest climber turnout on Everest this spring season.
This is good for those climbing the highest peak because there will be less crowd on the mountain, unlike in the past years when there was a traffic jam on the way up, giving Everest bad publicity. Expeditions on the 8,848-metre peak and other mountains generate millions of dollars in revenue for the country, which has seen a sharp drop in the number of visitors due to the coronavirus pandemic in the past two years. And just when the pandemic was receding, the war in Ukraine has affected travel for safety reasons and the high price of oil in the international market.
Still, the Tourism Ministry is expected to dole out anywhere between 250-300 permits on Everest this season, nearly a fourth down from the figure last year. Icefall doctors are already at Everest Base Camp, who will now carve out the route to Camp II on the normal southeast ridge route, using ladders and ropes. The mountain should be ready for summiting by mid-April.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 23, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
