Melamchi water wash Kathmandu roads

One can say its a ‘cursed’ project but it is no different from any other projects of the country, and is quite common phenomenon Nepal, after 30 years Kathmanduites are yet to get the chance to drink the Melamchi water.

After a lots of dilemma the project was preparing to distribute the water, bursting of the pipe of Melamchi Water Project in Lainchaur today hit the plan and caused inconvenience to the regular traffic and pedestrians.

Former Prime Minister late Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, one of the founders of the Nepali Congress (NC) would have been happy to see the Melamchi water flooding Lainchaur road, as he, one of the dreamers of Melamchi Water Project, wanted to wash the Kathmandu roads with Melamchi waters. He was mocked by the opposition then, and Melamchi Water Project is mocking Nepalis even today.

The leakage in the pipes later led to burst in the afternoon and flooded the Lainchaur roads, confirmed, spokesperson at the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Ltd (KUKL) Prakash Kumar Rai.

The pipe of the Melamchi project, which was laid under the main road near the Department of Mines and Geology,  burst, causing the road to collapse, and resulted in heavy traffic. Pedestrians have also been affected badly.

“As we got the news, we have closed the water supply to the area,” he said, adding that the reason for the burst is due to a lack of proper testing of the pipe before the water supply was resumed. “Those pipelines should have been tested, before the water supply was done.”

But he was unable to clarify, who should have tested the pipelines, and who failed their duty leading to the mockery of the mega project. But he claimed that the KUKL had started distributing drinking water supplied by the Melamchi Drinking Water Project, temporarily, to the Kathmanduites from Friday, four days ago.

Government fixes price of bottled water

As the traders started charging rampant prices for the bottled water, the government has fixed the price at a maximum of Rs 16 per liter. However, the government has fixed the maximum retail prices of a pet bottled water and a jar at Rs 20 and Rs 60, respectively for outside the Kathmandu Valley.

The Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection (DoCSCP) today directed the traders not to charge more price than the fixed. Retailers have been charging between Rs 20-30 for a liter bottled water.

According to director general of the department Mahesh Bhattarai, the department will speed up the market inspection as there are complaints that low quality bottled-water is being sold at higher prices in the market.

The department has also fixed the price of a 20 liter jar full of water at Rs 47. Currently, retailers have been charging Rs 60 per jar of water, in the valley.

KUKL annuls contract with a Chinese company

Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Ltd (KUKL) has annulled a contract with Safbon Water Service (Holding) Inc (SWSHS), Shanghai, as the construction company failed to perform according to the contract.

The KUKL had awarded the Chinese company SWSHS with a contract to construct water purification plants in Sallaghari of Bhaktapur and Balkumari and Dhobighat of Lalitpur in 2017 January. It had agreed to construct processing plants to purify 68.70 million liters of contaminated water every day in two-and-a-half years. But the Chinese company failed to complete its task despite a number of extended deadlines. As of the latest revision, the company was supposed to complete construction of the structures by last July, a press note issued by the KUKL reads.  

The SWSHS has completed only 27.1 per cent of the construction work in five years and three months’ period, the press note reads, adding that the company has also not been able to deploy adequate numbers of workers at the site, failing to renew the insurance policy and ignoring the guidelines of the authority, according to Project Implementation Directorate of KUKL.

The Chinese company was awarded the contracts for an estimated cost of Rs 3.92 billion. But the company has received payment of Rs 772.70 million over the period. According to KUKL, it scrapped the deposit amount of Rs 490 million maintained by SWSHS as the company failed to comply with the signed agreement.

World Bank provides $80 million to improve water supply and sanitation services

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved an $80 million project to help Nepal improve the delivery of water and sanitation services and promote integrated water resources management.

“This project aims to strengthen the delivery of water and sanitation services at the local level by building the capacity of municipalities and thereby supporting Nepal’s historic transition to federalism, while at the same time addressing critical gaps in water and sanitation infrastructure that hinder Nepal’s economic progress,” said World Bank country director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka Faris Hadad-Zervos.

The Water Sector Governance and Infrastructure Support Project will be implemented in strategic towns and rural municipalities in Karnali and Sudurpashchim provinces. Both provinces have low access to water supply and sanitation services, a higher incidence of poverty, and are vulnerable to climate change.

The project will help the local governments develop viable institutions to deliver water supply and sanitation services sustainably and efficiently, a press note issued by the multilateral development partner reads. The project will also strengthen the accountability of the sector to customers by building the monitoring and regulatory capacity of provincial and federal government agencies in the sector, it reads, adding that these will be complemented by investments in construction and rehabilitation of vital water supply and sanitation infrastructure, as well as water-quality surveillance facilities and monitoring systems.

“Through this project, we look forward to supporting the government of Nepal’s efforts to transform the water and sanitation by applying best practices in climate resilience, gender equality, social inclusion and citizen engagement – all of which are essential for delivering effective, equitable and inclusive services to local communities,” said Water Resources specialist and the Task Team Leader for the Project Feriha Mukuve Mugisha.

Water security a top priority in Covid-19 recovery : ADB Report

 Economies of Asia and the Pacific must put water security at the top of their agenda to recover from the fallout from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and adapt to climate change, according to a new flagship report released today by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The Asian Water Development Outlook 2020 describes the status in the region of water security, which measures the availability of safe and affordable water supply, sanitation for all, improved livelihoods, and healthy ecosystems, with reduced water-related diseases and floods.

“The need for water security is even more urgent due to the Covid-19 pandemic because access to water, sanitation, and hygiene offers the primary line of defense against the spread of Covid-19 and other diseases,” ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said, adding that far too many people across Asia and the Pacific continue to suffer from limited access to these vital services. “The new AWDO edition serves as a tangible and reliable knowledge resource for ADB’s developing members as they address the multifaceted challenges of water security.

Despite achievements in Asia and the Pacific over the last few decades, 1.5 billion people living in rural areas and 600 million in urban areas still lack adequate water supply and sanitation. Of the 49 ADB regional members, 27 face serious water constraints on economic development, and 18 are yet to sufficiently protect their inhabitants against water-related disasters.

The report uses updated methodologies and in-depth analysis of water financing and governance developed in partnership with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The report also stresses that it is imperative that countries drastically increase their investment in water, sanitation, and other water-related infrastructure and services by convening all public, private, and innovative financing to achieve quality growth and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Financing is also needed to enable and sustain a virtuous system of good governance, which requires efficient water-related organisations with sufficient capacity and financial resources to enable them to provide coherent policies, monitor and evaluate progress, and take action when needed, all in interaction with the stakeholders in a transparent way.

Some of the key recommendations in the report include put water at the center of sustainable rural development by promoting water-effective irrigation agriculture, community-based water and sanitation services, and locally resilient disaster risk reduction such as the combination of community protection and farmland flood retention. This will enable a good economic circle of locally affordable investment, income generation, proper management and operation, and an enhanced level of welfare for the people.

Likewise it has also recommended to achieve urban water security by investing in water, sanitation, and disaster risk reduction infrastructure services not only in cities but also in slums and peripheral areas, while following a gender-based approach. It has also asked to provide a healthy environment by drastically reducing pollution, stimulating a circular economy, increasing land protection, and embracing nature-based approaches.

“Increase the resilience of water systems to avoid water-related disasters and to be prepared for climate and other global changes,” it recommended, adding to turn recent lessons of disasters into better practices of tomorrow by rebuilding better. “To improve the region’s water security, ADB has programmed more than $6 billion in financial and technical assistance between 2020 and 2022 to support safe water supply, sanitation, and wastewater measures; and more than $2 billion for flood risk management in the same time period, together with tailored knowledge services that promote innovation and forge partnerships.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members; 49 from the region.

National conference on rainwater harvesting next week

A Kathmandu-based non-profit organisation ‘Smart WASH Solutions’ and Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management(DWSSM) under the Ministry of Water Supply are set to jointly organise a National Conference on Rainwater Harvesting for Livelihood, Community and Ecosystem Resilience on July 27 and 28 in collaboration with different organisations.
Organising a press conference in the capital today, the conference organising committee informed that preparations for the conference have reached the final stage.
The conference is aimed at making concerned stakeholders aware of how to reduce the impact of floods and rain-triggered-landslides by collecting and utilising rainwater to meet domestic water needs through effective management, they said, adding that the conference will be attended by experts working in the related field from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Nepal.
Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Barsha Man Pun is scheduled to inaugurate the conference, said the conference organising committee – that is composed of different representatives – led by chair of Smart WASH Solutions Ramdeep Sah. Likewise, a six-member technical committee entrusted with the responsibility of assessing and selecting conference papers has been formed under the leadership of Gunanidhi Paudel. A management committee has also been formed under the leadership of the chair of the Smart WASH Solutions Sah.
Speaking at the press conference, chair of Smart WASH Solutions said that it was impossible to address the problem of drinking water supply until rainwater was properly managed permanently. “About 1.3 per cent of total global population and 2.4 per cent of rural population in developing countries meet the domestic needs for drinking water by collecting and utilizing rainwater,” Shah claimed calling for revival of Nepali tradition of collecting and utilizing rainwater that people belonging to the present generation are unaware of.

Government formally cancels contract with CMC

Though, the Ministry of Water Supply is still trying to negotiate, the board of Melamchi Water Supply Project has formally cancelled the contract of the project with the Italian contractor today as the contractor failed to resume construction works within the deadline of the government notice.
According to executive director of the project Surya Kandel, the deadline of the ‘notice to contract termination’ that was issued to Co-operativa Muratori e Cementisti (CMC) di Ravenna (CMC) had expired today. The Melamchi Water Supply Development Board had sent a final letter to CMC to resume the remaining works on January 21 but the CMC has not replied yet. "The deadline is over and the contract with CMC has been formally terminated," he said, adding that the project has made multiple efforts to establish communication with the CMC officials but the contractor did not respond.
The contract – which had a legal provision – reads that the agreement would be automatically terminated, if the contractor did not resume construction activities within two weeks of receiving ‘notice to contract termination’.
Earlier, CMC had – from its side – terminated its contract with the project citing its bankruptcy. But the government did not accepted termination letter of CMC – as the project was in the final stage of completion – and asked the contractor to continue the work.
The project is preparing to assign the remaining works to local contractors, he said, adding that the project is preparing legal documents to assign the remaining works to local contractors.
The termination of the contract with CMC is, however, going to delay the construction of the Melamchi Water Supply Project, which was expected to be completed within a couple of months.

Government finally decides to terminate contract with CMC

The government is scrapping the contract with Co-operativa Muratori e Cementisti (CMC) di Ravenna, the Italian contractor of the Melamchi Water Supply Project, pushing the national pride project into further uncertainty.
Scrapping the contract with CMC will delay the construction of the Melamchi Water Supply Project – that was expected to be completed by the next few months – the termination of contract with CMC also means that the government has to follow a lengthy process to hire a new contractor for the project. A regular process to hire a new contractor would mean the project will be pushed at least a year further. First of all, there should be a global tender which requires at least 45 days of notice. Then following the guidelines of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the development partner, would require at least eight-nine months. The ADB needs to seek consent from its headquarters for any project above Rs1 billion and then more time will be required for correspondence, selection and evaluation of the contractor.
Less than 5 percent of work remains on the project, which will divert 170 million litres of water every day to Kathmandu from the Melamchi river in Sindhupalchok.
But the meeting of the Water Supply Development Board yesterday decided to terminate the contract with the Italian contractor and publish a ‘termination letter’ notice giving CMC a final chance to resume works.
According to the contract – the government has signed with CMC – the government must send a ‘termination letter’ notice to contractor giving a 14-day ultimatum to resume the project works. In case CMC fails to resume construction works within 14-day, the contract will be terminated automatically.
According to executive director of Melamchi Water Supply Development Board Surya Kandel, the government however cannot ‘legally’ terminate the contract with CMC before February 10 – the project contract period of CMC – as the dispute resolution committee of the water project had earlier made a decision that the government cannot scrap the contract with CMC till that time.
“The government formally dispatched a letter of termination to the Italian contractor CMC di Ravenna after it failed to come up with any concrete decision regarding resuming works,” Kadel said, adding that the project has decided to terminate the contract with the existing builder after it did not turn up to resume works even a month after abandoning the project."
In its previous letter sent last Tuesday, the government had set a Friday deadline for the CMC to make it clear whether it was interested to resume works and how it would want to resolve the dispute.
According to Kadel, the Italian builder did respond but sought at least one more week. “We received a meaningless correspondence which had not even come from the proper channel…..and it just sought more time," he added.
However, CMC official claimed that they had said a meeting was possible at a suitable time-around January 27 or so and "we had also sought diplomatic assurances."
But the government has decided to begin the process to scrap the contract with CMC after officials of the Italian company – who had left for their countries to celebrate Christmas – failed to return to complete the project. They have also not tried contacting the government since they left the country.
"We will soon send the notice of ‘termination letter’ to the CMC office in Italy,” said secretary at the Ministry of Water Supply Gajendra Kumar Thakur.
Earlier, CMC had terminated its contract with the project citing the company’s bankruptcy. However, the government had not accepted the termination letter of CMC as the project was in the final stage of completion. The government let the CMC officials go home to celebrate Christmas after their commitment to return. The Italian embassy in India and the Consulate General of Italy in Kathmandu had assured the government of their return. But the officials' failure to return has forced the government to begin the contract termination process with CMC.
Police on the night of December 16 had apprehended Italian staffers of the contracting company, accusing them of abandoning the project and trying to flee the country.
The CMC official said that the government cannot terminate the project which it had already scrapped after the government failed to pay the dues. "Melamchi project remains terminated by the CMC," the CMC official said, adding that the employer (Nepal government) cannot terminate something which is not in place."
The Italian contractor had first submitted the project termination letter to the government in the third week of December, saying the government had failed to pay Rs 350 million that it owed to the builder as per a decision by the Dispute Adjudication Board (DAB).
Since then the CMC has maintained that as the Nepal government had not paid the amount decided by the DAB within the deadline, they reserved the right of terminating the project. But government officials have refuted the CMC claim.
But in an interesting turn of events, the CMC had withdrawn the termination letter after its staffers were allowed to leave the country. They had subsequently flown out of the country. 

India provides Rs 180.74m for river training works

Indian ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri today handed over a cheque of Rs 180.74 million to secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Irrigation and Water Resources Sanjay Sharma for river training and construction of embankments.
The amount handed over for river training – in the presence of energy minister Barsha Man Pun – and construction of embankments along Lalbakeya, Bagmati and Kamla rivers in the plains, according to a press release issued by the Embassy of India in Kathmandu, today.
The river training and embankment works in the Lalbakeya, Bagmati and Kamla rivers aimed at flood control and water resources management, which will benefit millions of people inhabiting in the watershed of these rivers in India and Nepal, it reads, adding that the government of India has so far given 13 installments since 2008 to Nepal for the river training and embankment works totaling to over Rs 4.68 billion.
India remains committed to continue working closely with Nepal for further cooperation in the field of river training, flood control and water resources management in these and other rivers, the press release adds.

Nepal among top performers in national water security: ADB

Nepal, with a score of 37.3 points, is one of the top performers in the national water security index, according to a report prepared by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The new edition of the Asian Water Development Outlook (AWDO) 2016 released on the sidelines of World Water Week in Stockholm today also revealed that water security in Asia and Pacific has progressed overall in the past five years, but major challenges, including overexploited groundwater, demand from rising populations, and climate variability, remain.
In terms of water security (2013-16), Nepal has a score of 28 points compared to South Asian average of 33.7 points.
Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan use about 23 million pumps with an annual energy bill of $3.78 billion for lifting water, the report states. Likewise, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan annually pump a total of about 210- 250 cubic kilometers of groundwater using about 21 million-23 million pumps, it adds.
The report also states that some 23 per cent of Nepalis have access to piped water, whereas Nepal has least resilience to water-related disasters. "Among the five categories – Hazardous, Engaged, Capable, Effective, and Model – Nepal falls in the second category."
The report provides a snapshot of water security status of 48 of the region's countries, using latest data sets. According to these, the number of countries assessed as water insecure has dropped to 29, compared to 38 (out of 49 countries) identified in the previous report of 2013.
"Asia and Pacific remains the world's most vulnerable region to water insecurity and cannot sustain its recent economic growth without addressing this issue," said ADB vice president for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development Bambang Susantono, who led the launch in Stockholm. "Meeting the region's socioeconomic challenges and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water will require bridging the gap in provision of water services between rich and poor in urban areas, and between rural and urban areas," he added.
According to the report, some 1.7 billion people in the Asia Pacific lack access to basic sanitation. Recent estimates suggest that by 2050, some 3.4 billion people could be living in water-stressed areas in Asia and the Pacific while water demand will increase by 55 per cent.
Asian Water Development Outlook 2016 assesses water security in 5 key dimensions; household access, economic viability, urban services, restoring rivers and ecosystems, and resilience to water-related disasters. Advanced economies like Australia, Japan and New Zealand consistently lead the way, followed by countries in East Asia-led by the People's Republic of China, which has taken the biggest stride to improve water security since the previous study of 2013.
On household access to piped potable water and improved sanitation, the water security score in Asia and the Pacific, on a 20-point scale, ranges from 4.5 for South Asia to 20.0 for the advanced economies. All parts of the region improved their performance by about 2 points since 2013, except for the Pacific islands. But although the rural-urban gap has been reduced in some countries like Armenia and Thailand, the report says major disparities remain between rural and urban areas and between rich and poor on services and infrastructure for piped water supply and sanitation. South Asian countries particularly need to make considerable efforts to improve their performance in this dimension, the report states.
The second key dimension, economic water security, provides an assessment of the productive use of water to sustain economic growth in food production, industry and energy. Most of the change since 2013 has been positive with advanced countries again showing the highest scores and Pacific islands lagging, the report states. But there remains room for improvement across the region. Countries that merit strengthening current conditions are concentrated in Central Asia.
Likewise, in urban water security, East Asia has shown positive progress while South and Southeast Asia still have some way to go. Nearly half of the economies have piped water supply levels higher than 85 per cent but less than 50 per cent of the urban population has access to improved sanitation. In many areas, the majority of wastewater is discharged to the environment having received little to no treatment. The report further says significant investment and leadership is needed to reliably meet the water needs of cities.
The fourth key dimension describes how well a country is able to manage its river basins and sustain ecosystem services. It shows a wide range of results, with the Pacific islands scoring highly due to good river health and advanced economies doing well due to strong governance. Declining river health is most evident in Bangladesh, the lower Yangtze River Basin of the PRC, Nepal, and Mekong Delta in Vietnam, the report states.
For the fifth key dimension, resilience to water-related disasters, advanced economies show the strongest performance while much of the rest of Asia and the Pacific has been weak. "Between 1995 and 2015, there were some 2,495 water-related disasters striking Asia, killing 332,000 people and affecting a further 3.7 billion. South Asia showed the lowest resilience score, but several other countries showed strong improvement since 201”," the report adds.
The report concludes that the relationship between water security and the economy can be a virtuous or a vicious-circle. "There is a strong relationship between water management and the economy, and investments in good water management can be considered as a longer term payback for increased growth and poverty reduction," the report reads, "Water-related investments can increase economic productivity and growth, while economic growth provides the resources to invest in institutions and capital-intensive water infrastructure."

Water tariff goes up by 50 per cent

Nepal Drinking Water Corporation has hiked water tariff by about 50 per cent effective from tomorrow.

Citing the soaring costs due to increased inflation over the year, the corporation has hiked the tariff for the first time in nine years.
Water Tariff Fixation Commission – issuing a public notice today – said that the new tariff rates will come into effect from Falgun across the country.

As per the new rate, each service seeker now has to pay Rs 110 per unit from the current Rs 50. Earlier, it had proposed the commission to set the tariff at Rs 125 per unit. The corporation had proposed an almost 60 per cent hike.

Likewise, the corporation has also increased charges for drinking water supplied through tanker services. For 5,000 liters of water, consumers will have to pay Rs 1,950, almost 50 per cent more than the current rate.
In the last nine years, fuel prices have almost doubled and salaries of the employees have also increased several times based on inflation, forcing the corporation to jack up the tariff, the corporation said, adding that without the increase it has become difficult to maintain the operational costs.

The increase in the water charges is only to maintain the operational cost of the corporation, it claimed, stating that the corporation is already in loss.

The corporation supplies drinking water in 19 municipalities including Pokhara, Biratnagar and Birgunj, and one village development committee (VDC) in the country, at present.

Though the corporation has promised to improve the quality of drinking water with the hike in charges, it is still difficult to meet water supply demands.