Environmental Networking Platform for Children and Youth by SAMSUNG E&A
Stay connected with Eco-generation :
| Share 
| 
- Home >
- Our Actions >
- Ambassador report
54
Comments
SIN CITY |
|---|
|
SIN CITY HOW MUCH MONEY WILL THIRSTY MAN WILL PAY TO DRINK WATER??? The answer is quite simple All the Money One Has. But the scenario and ideology was quite different in traditional Nepalese society. People had different philosophy: ?Water is linked with religion. Offering adequate water to thirsty people is regarded as a virtue and taking money to offer the water is a SIN.? Offering water to the thirsty ones used to be regarded as a virtue. People had access to pure water running from stone spouts around Kathmandu valley. For about 1500 years the stone spouts supplied water to Kathmanduties continuously and still some are serving people with same quality of water without any cost, however everyone is not so lucky. Many need to wait days to get a bucket of water and after getting as well they are not sure whether the quality of water is good enough. But who cares, all that matters is they have water. In Nepal especially the Kathmandu valley is deprived of proper access to safe water readily and everyone is paying for life for WATER. I guess no Nepali living in Kathmandu valley would believe Nepal is second richest country in water resources in world. According to a report published by Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) the sole government authority responsible for supplying water to Kathmandities says, ?The demand for water in Kathmandu valley is 320 million litres per day but KUKL is supplying only 88.8 million litres per day (32% by ground water and 67% by surface) in the dry season and 118.4 MLD (29% by ground water and 71% by surface) in the wet season. Thus the data shows a water deficit of 78.5% in dry season and 63% in wet season (Subedi, 2010) with 40% leakage in the system.? According to CBS 2011 per capita water supply in Kathmandu is 35 litres and water demand is 44 lpcd, which is very low and almost 8 times lesser than an average US citizen. Now a question rises here, how rest of the water is supplied to thirsty throats to Kathmandu Valley? The answer is universal Private Water Business Organisation, tapping natural water resource and selling to thirsty throats. Water is a free good which is not free to people in Nepal. A litre of bottled water costs 20 rupees and a Jar of water (20 litres) costs NRs 50-60. Here the tragedy is a rich guy is using 18 litre of water to flush less than 100 ml of urine, but a poor one does not have easy access to a bottle of water to drink According to a survey Kathmandu having population of 17,40,977(CBS 2011) daily spend 1 million rupees for jar water, 6 million for bottled water, 7.5 million rupees for tanker water and 1 million from KUKL, which sums up for 15 million NRs daily for water only. There are around 6000 water selling companies which supply 25MLD water in Kathmandu. Jorpati, which lies in the northern corner of the valley supplies 700 tankers of water daily through 145 registered tanker groups. The groundwater has been extracted since 1991 from the area without any proper study or management practice, this has supplied water to people in one hand but is enhancing chances of land subsidence in other hand. Besides there are numerous business oriented bottling plants in and around Kathmandu tapping underground water resources and supplying to city after certain purification. However according a report published in Kantipur (Daily National newspaper) on March 9, 2013, one third of the bottle water is unfit for drinking. This is just a brief intro of how water is being business in Kathmandu valley and is being exchanged with money without any assurance of its quality. Businessmen here are not only charging money for water but are also playing with health of people but Government is mum. The Valley which offered safe water to every pedestrian and thirsty throat via Stone spouts once is charging money for sustaining life. The Kathmandu valley renowned as City Of Gods And Goddesses is turning to SIN CITY. photo by:dijitalimaj.com, visitnepalbalu.blogspot.com |
 
|
|
|
|
|
Previous : Dumbongs 
54 Comments
Thank you for sharing.
Posted 27-08-2013 17:30
nice article Pratap.....
I think water business should be stopped.but at present until gov. brings any long term solution to the problem of water scarcity, these private water industries should be monitored to assure the quality of water that is being supplied to Kathmandu.
also we do have water industries that supplies quality water but the charge is high i.e. for 1 jar its 115 rupees.
Posted 23-06-2013 03:45
Very informative, Pratap.
Posted 11-06-2013 21:10
thank you Binita, hope we all will realize that solution lies infront of us like you did by installing RWH at your home...
Posted 26-04-2013 00:32
Good Article Pratap.
Being the people of Kathmandu, we are well known about this problem and hope that with this problem will be sorted out soon.
Posted 26-04-2013 00:19
thank you for your comments Abhishek, I totally agree charge should be levied upon service not water, but especially tankers are charging for both service and water without assurance of quality..
Posted 22-04-2013 00:48
hope to get some ideas for solution UNmesh
Posted 22-04-2013 00:46
Thank you Kavya
Posted 22-04-2013 00:45
thank you for your suggestion Christy..
Posted 22-04-2013 00:23
true Bhuwan the situation is very disgusting, now dry period has started we will get to hear more news of water scarcity, hopefully many if us will get safe water to drink
Posted 22-04-2013 00:22
So the nature free gift for human sustainability has been measured in the monetary value. Yes the money should be charged for the service but not for the water.....
Posted 21-04-2013 23:57
but the quality very poor... the water quality problem of kathmandu is Iron and Ammonia content in the water due it is soil topography.... but people are very ignorant about it and just require water for livelihood and the water mafia are taking advantages of it.
Posted 21-04-2013 23:53
yup the title sin city to kathmandu is absolutely right.... yes the water demand is raising along with the population raise .......the carrying capacity of the kathmandu has reached its maximum limit fro the surface source.... so to meet its demand the ground water is also been started to be extracted.....
Posted 21-04-2013 23:48
Disgusting and alarming situation...thx for the report
Posted 21-04-2013 23:02
This was an amazing and an informative report
Posted 20-04-2013 21:03
Yes, Pratap. To increase gross productivity of Nepal, that measure must be done. Then the money over-paid to water can be distributed to more effective and productive uses!
Posted 17-04-2013 13:13
How disgusting is the situation of Kathmandu valley. People pay money for drinking water but they couldn't get pure drinking water. No guarantee of safety. Government couldn't do any thing......
Posted 16-04-2013 03:42
Thanks for the report.It gave a lot of Information regarding the water scarcity in kathmandu vally and people facing probelm to get pure & safe drinking water.
Posted 16-04-2013 03:38
thank you Christy for your suggestion, but at the moment the only option is construction of new pipelines since ,most of the water supply pipes are were constructed Rana regime about 60-70years ago which have been buried under houses or so....and for new pipelines government doesnt have enough money. hopefully government will prioritize water supply and we all will get safe water
Posted 16-04-2013 01:09
Thank you kekasan, hope to receive some ideas from you.
Posted 16-04-2013 01:04
Very interesting article!
Posted 15-04-2013 12:47
Changing pipelines can also be one of the options. As it has been built long time ago, at least 20~30% of water resource is lost between cracks in pipelines during distribution process.
Posted 15-04-2013 10:03
Thank you Rajshree, yes Nepal has enormous potentiality for hydroelectricity and many other purpose but I have mentioned earlier, political system is prioritized during transitional period and case is same. and yes, India and Nepal have agreed to build Pancheshwor HP in Far western part of country via construction of multipurpose Dam. hopefully, many problems of Nepal and India will be solved.
Posted 14-04-2013 17:18
Thanks for the good report with lot of statistical data.
The Himalayan Rang of Nepal is the main source of water for India. The Nepal Government should hold the water before flowing down to Bay of Bengal by developing dams and suitable distribution system. By which Hydroelectric power can be generated and can be supplied to rest of the world.
Posted 14-04-2013 16:52
thank you Geetika for your suggestions, yes we do have that system, I hope we will be able to find suitable solution very soon. as the country is passing through transitional period and lack proper legal system, its bit difficult. hopefully we will manage to drag attention of all and reach a solid conclusion..
Posted 13-04-2013 21:39
Pratap : efforts are always fruitful . I've heard of Kathmandu's beauty and it must not be let turned into a sin city!! . Well, privatization seems to be the problem . Don't you have PIL (public interest litigation) system in Nepal? Filing a PIL can help a bit legally !
Posted 13-04-2013 20:29
but it doesnt mean KUKL is not trying, this year only they are digging 15 new deep boring to reduce gap between supply and demand, and the most awaited melamchi water supply project is said to be completed in near future, hopefully Kathmanduties will have enough water some day..
Posted 13-04-2013 09:44
Thank you geetika, expecting some ideas for solving from you as well..
Posted 12-04-2013 22:34
very informative and nice article.
Posted 12-04-2013 22:24
yup BOMBOMA hope to see your ideas for solutions as well..
Posted 12-04-2013 21:26
Thank you vary much Firas, I would appreciate if you could share some of your ideas as well..
Posted 12-04-2013 21:25
Ganga jee can you please share some of your ideas to get solution for this problem?
Posted 12-04-2013 21:24
very true Titus but sometimes its cause of our death as well and we dont want our life saver be life taker..wat say?
Posted 12-04-2013 21:19
very true Bhawana jee, can you suggest some ways to fight for our right?
Posted 12-04-2013 21:17
Thank you Rohan, can you please suggest some of the solutions please..
Posted 12-04-2013 21:14
thank you Smriti jee for suggestions, may be we all can work together for that..
Posted 12-04-2013 21:13
Laxmi jee you must have faced similar kind of problem in or around Kathmandu and many other parts of the country, what do you suggest how can we solve this problem?
Posted 12-04-2013 21:12
What are your suggestions christy, how do you think we can improve?
sorry to use so many boxes....
Posted 12-04-2013 21:09
yes very true Christy, if one can't utilize the resource very well, the available resources are never enough.
and yes, talking about distributing water and water quality, KUKL itself is not sure of quality of water, but since the supply lines are very old and closely passed with sewerage line no1 can actually assure quality of water.
talking about the distribution of water yearly 5000 water taps are added in the valley, but water supply quantity is same, so you can image how the condition will be when same resource is to distributed 5 people and 50 people..
Posted 12-04-2013 21:05
Pratap I really enjoy reading your report dear brother
Posted 12-04-2013 20:31
Truth...
Posted 12-04-2013 20:06
wow great pratap.
Posted 12-04-2013 18:40
water is very important to our life without water no one will living safely
Posted 12-04-2013 16:55
It is right of consumer to get water for daily use or drinking t.If people have to buy a water jar bottle every day
then what's the use of paying monthly bill to Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani sansthan. Yes it's really pathetic in a sense that the water that comes 4-6 hours a week is still contaminated will physical impurities and water borne bacterial disease.yes !It's high time to fight for our right for water management in Kathmandu city...
Posted 12-04-2013 16:36
Amazing report
Posted 12-04-2013 14:34
Well for that, i think the government should give legal actions. We can pressurize government through slogans, campaigns, plus I think time to time awareness programs can help a lot.
Posted 12-04-2013 13:34
Thanks for the well organized report!
I've been indulged into the !--script-- because it contained very critic and alarming contents.
The problem is how the government or government owned company manages the water resources.
Setting up infrastructure for providing clean tap water to every household, providing tap water to people at a very reasonable&low price can be considered as a very important welfare a government should provide to its people.
Although South Korea is regarded as a country with water scarcity, most of the people don't feel uncomfortable because clean water is accessible everywhere at a very low price.
So, the point is not how much water resource exists but how well water resources is managed and distributed.
Posted 12-04-2013 09:02
True Smriti, but we have been paying unnecessarily for water,people are tapping our free good without any authority and without paying adequate royalty to government plus they are not ensuring quality of water as well, at this time what do you suggest to do?
Posted 12-04-2013 08:23
thank you Laxmi, can you please share your opinion on profit oriented water market as well?
Posted 12-04-2013 08:21
water business in my opinion can orient in profit making but it should be kept under meticulous examination that health should be the first priority.
Posted 12-04-2013 00:55
thanks for article.
Posted 12-04-2013 00:16
I would like to request you all to critically analyse the article and express your views, should water business prevail in profit oriented manner or not..
Posted 12-04-2013 00:06
this article is just to drag interest of you all towards ongoing situation of water problem in Kathmandu valley, I have not mentioned about the surface water resource for drinking water purpose, the article deals with the water supply system of Kathmandu against traditional belief of serving water.
Posted 12-04-2013 00:04
once again sorry for a long article, i hope you all won't be bored by it..
Posted 12-04-2013 00:02