Kathmandu, Apr. 12: Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun, Minister
for Water Supplies Bina Magar and Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Director
General for South Asia Hun Kim participated in a breakthrough ceremony of the
Sindhu-Gyalthum tunnel of the Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) on Thursday.
It marked the completion of the excavation of the longest
tunnel in Nepal.
The 26-km tunnel, to be fully operational in a few months,
will carry 170 million litres of water per day from the Melamchi River in
Sindhupalchowk district to the Kathmandu Valley.
The same tunnel will carry 510 million litres water per day
when the water of the Yangri and Larke rivers will be brought to the valley in
the second phase of the project.
The project has been delayed by almost a decade with multiple
time and cost overruns.
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“The completion of the excavation marks a very
important milestone in the project's history and is indeed a giant leap forward
for the project, one that will soon help alleviate the water stress experienced
by the inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley,” Kim said on the occasion.
He
also appreciated the strong commitment of the government that has enabled the
MWSP to overcome countless challenges in the past, including the 2015
earthquake and the subsequent shortage of materials, and to come to this
remarkable stage.
The
project will benefit an estimated 1.3 million urban inhabitants, or 158,549
households, with more reliable and quality water supply.
Currently,
Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUML) supplies about 100 million litres
per day on average, with about 40% of this estimated to be lost due to
leakages.
An
additional 170 mld of water will be available by the end of 2018 for
distribution to the KUKL customers.
Water
will be supplied daily for at least 2-4 hours to KUKL customers once the new
system is put into operation, said minister Magar.
“ADB is proud to be part of a project of such national importance,” said
ADB’s Country Director for Nepal Mukhtor Khamudkhanov.
He also appreciated the government’s reforms in Nepal’s urban water sector
and urged everyone involved to focus on completing the remaining work so that
Kathmandu residents could enjoy improved water services in 2018.
ADB has provided a total of US $145 million in loans for the
$355.4 million project and has been working since 2000 with the government to
build the tunnel as well as 29 km of access roads.
Japan International Cooperation Agency has financed the water
treatment plant in Sundarijal.
The
ADB has lent Nepal $170 million through the Kathmandu Valley Water Supply
Improvement Project to expand the Sundarijal water treatment plant, modernise
the distribution network, construct large storage tanks, rehabilitate the existing
infrastructure, and strengthen the KUKL.
The government is planning to complete all finishing work
and testing of the tunnel by early July.
This will allow the Melamchi River water to be diverted to
the Sundarijal water treatment plant in July, with testing of the new
transmission and distribution system in the Kathmandu Valley to start from
August, claimed the ADB.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 13 April 2018.
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