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VOL. 27, NO. 29, March 28, 2008 (Chaitra 15 2064 B.S.)
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Not A Drop To Drink
Amid the election campaign for Constituent Assembly, Nepal celebrates the World Water Day by completely ignoring the crisis of drinking water
By KESHAB POUDEL
Sani Tamang, 16, who lives with her parents in a rented house in Sankhamul, has to spend at least a couple of hours to carry drinking water from nearby stone spout. Although she is a student appearing for School Leaving Certificate Examination, her priority is to collect water even on the day of examination.
"As my mother and father both of them go for work, it is my duty to complete the household chores including to carry drinking water. Since the tap had gone dry since December, I have to go for nearby stone spout where I have to stand in a queue for hours."
In Sankhamul and adjoining areas of Kathmandu ward no 35, other middle class and high class families of household buy waters from private tankers but the poor communities have very little options. For all communities' drinking water has become a scarce commodity. The most vulnerable are the people living below the poverty line.
According to WaterAid Nepal's Urban Program Operation Framework (2005-2010), in an average 78 percent urban population have access to water supply. This does not ensure adequate and safe supply. For example, water distribution is contaminated and most part of Kathmandu receives only half an hour supply in alternative days. The frameworks state that water supply is heavily subsidized and rich enjoy the subsidy.
Although Nepal is known as a country of abundant water resources, the government is yet to provide drinking water to all its population. Despite these kinds of problems in the country, political parties have shown little concern about it.
Unfortunately, the issue of drinking water has not received due attention in the election period as the leaders of political parties argue that the problems of drinking water will be resolved after the election. "The priority of the government is now to hold the election for CA. You will have new Nepal with all the facilities after writing the new constitution through CA," said prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala replying to queries of journalists in his residence.
However, the candidates of various political parties - who are now in door to door campaign seeking votes, see the plight of poor class of people who have been walking at the street with empty buckets.
For many, there is no tap water at all but those who have access to tap water, too, are compelled to drink contaminated water.
"There is drinking water in the tap but you cannot drink it without boiling," remarked Tatsuo Mizuno, Japanese ambassador to Nepal in a two day Nepal Donors Consultation Meeting in (February 21).
The test conducted by Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) in May 2004 revealed that the city water supply is contaminated by various types of bacterial coliform resulting in frequent outbreak of water borne diseases. As tested by ENPHO alone 1,361 patients were hospitalized due to water borne disease including cholera.
The remark made by Japanese ambassador at the meeting of Nepal's donor countries and policy makers spoke volume of Nepal's situation.
This remark is understandable as Japan is a leading development partner of Nepal supporting projects to increase the access of drinking water in rural as well as urban areas.
Thanks to the support from Nepal's development partners, Nepal has made certain progress. Although the water supplied through the tap is still contaminated, the access of common people to drinking water has drastically increased in the last decade. According to Pay Survey 2001, 17 percent or 218,322 households of five municipalities of valleys are unconnected to piped water supply and 63 percent of those unconnected are poor.
According to interim plan, the overall coverage of improved water supply is estimated at about 71.6 percent but the quality of coverage data is highly unreliable. It does not reflect how many of those systems are actually functioning and the quality of water supplied is not always safe due to arsenic, iron and bacterial contamination.
Thus people without access to improved water facilities have no choice but to collect water from often polluted rivers, lakes, streams and traditional wells. Sanitary conditions are even worse with rivers, fields, and forests serving as toilets for around 75 percent of the rural population.
The impact on the health and quality of life is clear and predictable. According to UNICEF, each year around 13,000 children die in Nepal before reaching their fifth birthday due to water related disease and poor sanitation.
Still many rural women and young girls spend an average of four to six hours every day collecting water from the nearest source. This task is not just exhausting but it simply uses up valuable energy and leaves very little time to do other productive activities. As a result young girls are spending time collecting water when they should be at school.
"Those stark realities will continue to remain and the people will continue to suffer unless a concerted effort is made by government, private sector and civil society," said Sanjaya Adhikary, country representatives of WaterAid Nepal.
The Millennium Development Goals target is to provide access to drinking water and sanitation facility by 2015 to all. Statistics show that approximately 81 percent of the total population in the country currently obtains drinking water from improved facilities. The corresponding figure for sanitation coverage was 39 percent. Nepal is likely to reach near universal access to drinking water and sanitation by 2015.
With high priority accorded to the water supply and sanitation sector, significant progress has been achieved in this field in a relatively short period. In 1970, only 6 percent of the people living in the rural areas had access to a protected water source. During the water supply and sanitation decade (1981-1990), this figure rose to 34 percent. At present, nearly 72 percent of the country's population have access to basic water supply.
The overall coverage of sanitation went up from 6 percent in 1990 to 46.8 percent in 2001.It is, however, unfortunate that improvement in the water supply is not commensurate with increasing demand for water for drinking purposes, industrial use and irrigation. Major towns and cities of Nepal face acute water problems.
In Kathmandu valley, water supply meets only 79 percent of the total urban demand. Water quality has deteriorated in many cases due mainly to the lack of treatment plants and poor supply network. Neither does the rural region nor do the municipal areas apart from the towns in the Kathmandu valley where only 15 percent of the houses have access to a sewerage facility.
"The total cost of attaining the MDG on water supply and sanitation for 2005-2015 amounts to NRs. 137,3982 million at 2004/05 constant prices. The average annual cost amounts to NRs.12, 490.7 million at constant price. The estimated cost is slightly higher than what government has been spending at present. In fact, expenditure in this sector as a whole declined from NRs.2436 million in 1999/00 to NRs. 1757.8 million in 2001/02," writes Millennium Development Goals Needs Assessment For Nepal.
WaterAid Nepal estimated that an additional 11,300 households needed to be served between 200-2015 to achieve the drinking water target. Total financial requirement for meeting this target is US$ 1087 million and the resource availability for 200-2015 is US$ 755 million, resulting in an annual resource gap of US$ 23 million.
Finance minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat in his budget statement allocated Rs. 5.33 billion for the year of 2007-08 fiscal years for drinking water supply. According to the budget, the government is expected to provide safe drinking water to additional 2 million population.
"During the interim plan period, our aim is to provide the drinking water to all our population. As the government has already expressed its commitment to fulfill the budget, we will be in a position to meet the demand by 2015," said Jagdish Pokharel, vice chairman of National Planning Commission.
Whatever one says, there is still a long way to go before supplying the drinking water to all becomes a reality.
