LOCAL NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

'Most rivers in urban Nepal unfit for human use'

By Bishnu Budhathoki

KATHMANDU, Mar. 19: Most rivers in Nepal's urban areas are polluted and their waters unfit for human use. In Kathmandu Valley, drinking water has been found to contain coliform bacteria, iron, ammonia and other contaminants, says a latest UN report.

Demand for water in the Kathmandu Valley is about 190 million litres a day, while total supply is only about 80 million litres, forcing people to use contaminated and untreated water.

The situation will ease to some extent with the addition of about seven million litres of water from Manahara from April. If the rivers from this stream can be used properly it can generate up to 20 million litres of water a day, says officiating General Manager of Nepal Water Supply Corporation Narendra Man Pradhan.

But the supply of water, which is 'fit to drink from the tap', is still a far cry. The corporation has a treatment plant at Sundarijal and at Bouddha Mahankal. Water gets contaminated mainly during its distribution.

Open sources of water, sewer lines that run almost parallel to the water distribution system, and leakage, which allow pollutants to seep into the distribution system, are the major causes of contamination.

Pradhan says groundwater, which is being used extensively, contain iron and ammonia and they are very expensive to treat.

Inadequate supply and contamination of drinking water are problems faced by most of the poor countries of the world.

Worldwide, over one billion people lack adequate access to safe drinking water and nearly three billion lack access to basic sanitation mainly in the Least Developed Countries.

Water stress is having particularly adverse affects on the world's poorest countries, which have few resources to cope, according to a report presented this week at the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, by Anwarul K. Chowdhury, the United Nations High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.

The report "Critical Development of Water Issues for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)" states that severe water scarcity in the poorest countries is largely the result of uneven distribution of both surface and groundwater resources, deteriorating water quality and growing demands on existing water resources. More than half of the water available from rivers in the LDCs, for example, is being consumed on an annual basis. This figure is projected to increase to more than 70 per cent by 2025.

Water quality is also an important factor that is especially problematic in LDCs. Untreated sewage, chemical discharges and petroleum leaks are among the common sources of contamination, which the poorest countries do not have the resources to address. Poor water supplies and sanitation are resulting in increasing cases of water-related diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery.

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