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