Kathmandu, Mar. 6
As water from the Melamchi River in Sindhupalchok district finally arrives
in Kathmandu, hopes are high that the residents will finally be able to drink
it.
The Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) began filling the 26-km-long
tunnel with water since 22 February. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Saturday
pressed a switch to open the gate of the tunnel at Sundarijal, letting water
stored there make its way into the Kathmandu Valley.
The project has completed a water treatment facility with a capacity of
treating 85-million-litre of water per day in Sundarijal while another is
nearing completion. The treated water will then flow through a 1400-mm-diameter
pipeline to 10 storage reservoirs around the Valley.
However, the water collected in the tunnel is not channeled to the
treatment facility but diverted to the Bagmati River. According to the MWSP, it
would take about two weeks to flush out the water collected in the tunnel.
After that, it would be examined for about a week to prevent the occurrence of
any problem in the days ahead.
Water would be sent regularly to the tunnel only after completing the
process.
Earlier, the project had begun to fill the tunnel with water in July
2020. But two of its employees died as the force of the accumulated water broke
one of the gates. Later, Chief of the project Tiresh Prasad Khatri had claimed
that some long-term safety measures were applied in the tunnel.
The project was initially slated for completion by 2008. The total
demand for water in that year was 325-million-litre per day (MLD) which is
expected to reach about 500 MLD in 2022.
The government then planned to add additional 340 MLD from the Yangri
and Larke rivers to the tunnel by 2022 to meet the growing demand but the
second and third phases of the MWSP are yet to begin.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 7 March 2021.
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