NATIONAL 3 -(Spotlight Weekly)

At Danger Level

Regulating Kathmandu's ground water is behind the scene condition tagged by donors assuring assistance for Melamchi Project

By A CORRESPONDENT

What do Melamchi waters and Kathmandu's ground water have in common? Even if they may not be linked geographically, both are connected with the Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) -- whose fate is yet be decided.

How? Naturally, Melamchi waters will have direct connection with the MWSP because it is the same precious liquid that the 400 million US Dollars project is supposed to pipe into the Capital Valley.

But, Kathmandu's ground water will have a different relation with the MWSP. Donors funding the different component of the MWSP are already pressurizing the government to regulate Kathmandu's ground water that is being rampantly and heavily extracted out --all free of cost.

A stone -tap : A decorative piece

In black and white, regulating Kathmandu's ground water does not feature as the conditions set by donors before releasing fund for the multi million drinking water project. The clearly spelled out conditions for the project are: Raise the tariff of water, privatize the management of Nepal Water Supply Corporation, and form a regulatory board to overlook the water management.

For the last two conditions, legislation are already afoot to reach the Parliamentary table. But there is also one more legislation nearing its completion. And that is the Ground Water Regulation Act. Permitted by the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ground Resources Development Board, under the Ministry of Water Resources, has already begun to draft the bill which will be presented in the Parliament later this year.

Designed to regulate the groundwater extraction in the Capital Valley, the Act will license and charge the users digging below 40 meters underground to extract ground water.

Leading among the donors to pressurize the government to regulate ground water is the Asian Development Bank -- that has assured to fund the bulk distribution component of the MWSP. Under its technical assistance, the multilateral agency had assigned two consultants -- Metcalf and Eddy with CEMAT -- to study Kathmandu's ground water condition.

The consultants' reports, like many other previous ones, are alarming. "Both the pumping water level and static water level are fast depleting in most part of the Kathmandu Valley," summed up the report.

The fastest depleting groundwater was found to be in the northern part of the capital city. Bansbari and Maharajgunj area in the northern part of the city, for instance, have seen their pumping water level deplete by 69 meters in the last two years.

Similarly, static water level at Baluwatar has gone down by more than 22 meters sine 1976. The least affected area is the southern capital part like Pharping where static water level has gone down by a little more than 13 meters since 1976. The pumping water level in the area has gone down by 19 meters during the same duration.

The report has also recorded the different organizations -- both government and private -- heavily extracting Kathmandu's groundwater. Of the recorded 60 Million Litres per Day (MLD) consumption of groundwater in the Capital Valley, Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC) alone accounts for around 30 MLD.

Star rated hotels pump out seven MLD using 85 wells and 72 springs. Over concentration in the central and northern part of the capital -- that have most of the 360 shallow and deepwells --have dried up most of their wells.

In domestic and private level, more than 5,000 dug wells, hand pumps and rower pump wells extract around 15 million litres of water every day.

These alarming figures must have become handy for the ADB or any other donors to press for the regulation of Kathmandu's groundwater. More so, at a time when hydrogeologists have been warning against the risk of capital's land-surface subsidence coupled by the threat of earthquake.

But that may not only be the reason why donors are pressing for the regulation of Kathmandu's groundwater, observers say. What they point at is the donors' assured investment on MWSP. They claim that if Kathmandu's groundwater is allowed to be extracted free of cost in the long run, all of the Kathmanduites may not become the buyer of Melamchi waters. Which means, the Melammchi water may flow down the gutter without being consumed.

The MWSP targets to bring in 170 million liters of water everyday by 2004. During dry seasons, NWSC does not meet Kathmandu's half of the demand of 140 million liters of water a day.