Melamchi: A stark case of flawed management and failed development

Kathmandu, Apr. 8

Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) has become a typical case of Nepal's failed development and flawed project handling.

After two and a half decades since its implementation, the project is in need of modification of its headwork design as well as tunnel extension for the second phase of the development.

The project is yet to make a decision about the location and model of headwork. It is difficult to remove all the debris and repair the damaged headwork that was buried under the rubble for many months, said Rajendra Prasad Pant, Spokesperson of the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board, the agency which was scrapped by a budget rider of the current Fiscal Year 2022/23 and recently reinstated through a Cabinet decision.

Apparently, a new headwork should be developed at a new and feasible location.

Listed as a national pride project in 2011/12 and executed by two separate agencies in terms of development and distribution work, the MWSP could have been a model water supply project in the entire South Asia but it has remained a 'sick project' for the last one and a half decades.

Initiated in 1998 with the establishment of Melamchi Water Supply Development Board (MWSDB), the project was supposed to be completed by 2006 but was destined to witness multiple deadline extensions and remains incomplete even today after a devastating flash flood in Melamchi River damaged the structures and buried the under-construction headworks beneath more than 12-metre-thick debris.

The floods pushed the near-complete national pride project into uncertainty as the government lacked an alternative plan for the untoward situation. According to Pant, the damages caused by the floods have increased the project cost by about Rs. 2 billion. Earlier, the MWSDB used to put the project progress at 99 per cent but since the headwork has about 10 per cent weightage in the overall development, and since it is completely damaged, it is difficult to give value to the progress.

Meanwhile, for the last nine months since mid-July 2022, no work has been done at the site except some repairs to channelise the water into the tunnel. The government has annulled the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board through the budget speech of the current fiscal year 2022/23. “When there is no implementing agency, how could the development work be executed?” asked Pant. Although the responsibilities of the project were transferred to the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management, it saw no significant progress.

Again, the government reinstated the MWSDB with a Cabinet decision recently. However, according to the experts, chances to make major interventions to continue the supply of Melamchi water to the Kathmandu Valley in the next three or so months of the current fiscal year are bleak.

 

No Melamchi water this monsoon

The recently resurrected MWSDB said that sending water to the Kathmandu Valley with a temporary measure will not happen this monsoon.

There was a plan to put rock-filled filter at Gate No. 1 to filter the pebbles and debris in case of flooding while sending the water to the valley during the monsoon. But since the Ministry of Finance couldn't assure the budget required to implement it, there has been little progress, informed Pant. The MWSP was bringing about 170 million litres of water per day (MLD) into the valley by constructing a temporary headwork.

The valley currently needs about 500 MLD of water a day but the supply is slightly above 100 MLD. Even during the monsoon, the supply does not cross 300 MLD, said Member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr. Ram Kumar Phuyal.

This shortfall of water has created a business for more than 700 water tankers and about 300 bottled water factories.

 

Second phase delays

Second phase of the project to bring the water from the Yangri and Larke rivers in Sindhupalchok district has also been affected by the disaster and government inaction.

According to Pant, the second phase plan is also likely to get some changes. As per the current plan, the waters from Yangri and Larke rivers would be poured into the Melamchi River and sent into the tunnel but to maintain regular water supply even when any one of the river is flooded, the tunnel from Yangri and Larke would be extended further and connected with the main tunnel instead of the Melamchi River.

It means the design of the project should be changed. According to the board, all agencies, decision and policy makers are convinced about the need for changing the design but no initiative has been taken so far to make it happen.

The MWSP was planning to bring additional 340 million litres of water per day from Yangri and Larke rivers to the Kathmandu Valley before the end of 2025. About 11-km long tunnel would be built to pour the water of these two rivers into the Melamchi River. The Yangri River is at a distance of 9-km from the headworks of MWSP and the Larke River is 2-km further away.

According to the plan, the 2-km distance from Yangri to Larke would be connected with a large tunnel that would carry water as well as have space for vehicular movement. Although the MWSDB had announced in 2021 April to start procurement process for the construction services by September that year, that couldn't happen. Then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had also directed the Ministry of Water Supply to create an environment for adding the water from the Yangri and Larke rivers to the supply channel by 2024.

The board was planning to use the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) in the second phase of the project to save the cost and time. It is expected to save at least Rs. 2 billion from the Rs. 11 billion budget and 6-7 months of time.

 

Delayed by political instability and interest

Former government secretary and development expert, Gopinath Mainali, said that the project has been delayed much beyond its multiple deadlines due to the poor project preparedness, lack of adequate technical preparation, resource assurance and failure on the part of the implementation agency.

"Implementing agency, developer, donor, politician and local stakeholders always wanted to secure their petty interests rather than paying attention to the project development," he said. According to him, frequent and untimely change in the project modality has also affected the timely execution of development projects in Nepal.

Member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr. Ram Kumar Phuyal, stated that three factors affected the smooth operation of the project – people in the affected areas, geological condition, and insincere implementation.

"Political instability has a severe repercussion on the development of the MWSP. Meanwhile, there was poor understanding in the leadership about the importance of the project and they treated it like a year-on-year or consecutive programme," said Dr. Phuyal.

 

Four decades and still going

In the first phase, about 26.5 km tunnel and two water treatment plants of 85 MLD each were constructed at Sundarijal in Kathmandu to purify water before sending it to the distribution channel. Likewise, 10 bulk distribution centres were also developed across the valley.

The project was conceived about four decades ago. The government had established Melamchi Water Supply Development Board in 1998 August under the erstwhile Ministry of Physical Planning.

Late Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, the then Prime Minister, about three decades ago after the restoration of democracy in 1990, had promised to bring the water of the Melamchi River to the Kathmandu Valley.

The first phase of the MWSP was supposed to be completed in 2006 but it went through multiple deadline extensions and cost overrun. It was affected by the bureaucratic process, Maoist rebellion, 2015 earthquake, Indian blockade and fleeing of the Italian contractor company CMC.

Construction work at the project site completely stopped for about six months due to the earthquake and economic blockade in 2015.

Earlier, in 2007, the Minister of Physical Planning, Hisila Yami, cancelled the contract given to a company from the United Kingdom, Severn Trent, accusing it of poor international track record. The contract was then awarded to China Railway Bureau Group Corporation but was terminated in 2012.

Meanwhile, the contract was awarded to an Italian CMC. It made a significant progress in tunnel and water treatment plant construction. But in 2019, the contract with the CMC was terminated amidst payment disputes. The CMC had sought additional Rs. 1.61 billion payment in compensation for the delays caused by the quake and blockade. But a government committee decided to pay Rs. 350 million by 16 November 2018.  However, the company did not get the payment and it wrote a letter to the Ministry of Water Supply informing its motives to withdraw from the project.

The contract was ultimately scrapped as the CMC denied, allegedly, paying kickbacks from the payment to the secretary of the ministry, Gajendra Thakur and MWSP's Surya Raj Kandel.

Meanwhile, CMC had left about Rs. 1.53 billion unsettled dues and the local vendors demanded the government should pay the money. When they threatened to obstruct the work, the government gave in and agreed to settle the accounts.

Then the government awarded the contract to another Chinese firm, Sino Hydro, to complete the remaining works.

The project delivered the water of Mealamchi to the people of Kathmadnu in March 2021 by constructing a temporary headwork. But the flash floods caused by heavy rains on 15 June 2021 damaged the headworks and a part of the tunnel, disrupting the supply of potable. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 9 April 2023.