The water in Bagmati may be a bit of a monsoon-fed source. But according to data provided by Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL), the state-owned drinking water monopoly, it is us, the valley dwellers, who drink up all of the Bagmati during the dry seasons.
The Valley at large has a demand for 280 million liters of drinking water per day, out of which, KUKL is able to provide only 160 million.
“The number gets below 100 million during the dry season, and Bagmati is the biggest source we have to adjust to in the drought,” says Chandralal Nakarmi, chief of technical department at KUKL.
Valley natives still remember the heydays of the river which date back just 30 years in its most recent history.
“Even during the dry season, the water in the Bagmati used to be as clean as the kind we drink,” says Brazesh Sharma, a well-known television and film scriptwriter, “On our way back from school, we used to take a plunge almost everyday.” Sharma thus reminisces of the silvery sparkles when the clean river water flowed over a neat sand bed.
It was in 1969 when the state-owned drinking water authority started diverting Bagmati to its water intake. The authority built the first water reservoir in Sundarijal, to the northeast of Kathmandu, the same year with a capacity of 19 million liters per day. The situation worsened once they doubled the capacity. To meet the Valley’s growing population’s demand, the authority decided to divert more water from Bagmati to adjust to the shortage. By 1993, the capacity was enhanced to 39 million liters with the assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
“As it is monsoon, we divert relatively less volume of water from Bagmati. And if there is heavy rain, we hardly take one fourth level of it,” says Nakarmi, “But, during the summer drought, we leave almost no water to flow in the river.”
The High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of Bagmati Civilization (CIDOBAC) is one of the authorities involved to protect the river. But its officers say they are “helpless as there is no alternative to supply drinking water to the Valley people.”
Bagmati Turns into Sewage
“Throughout the dry seasons, the water of Bagmati feeds our water tanks,” Anil Bhadra Khanal, Project Manager of the Committee, says, “Only the wastewater from our households gets to the river.”
According to Khanal, on an average, 40 million liters of waste water is directly dumped into Bagmati on a daily basis, 80% of which comes from the Valley’s households, and 7% from factories that rim the valley.
“Wastewater is a major pollutant of the Bagmati,” he says, “And during dry seasons, it’s all that floats. If it wasn’t for the wastewater, there’d be no river flowing.”
There are a few tributaries which are connected with Bagmati during its 27-kilometer journey from Sundarijal to Chovar. They are Bishnumati, Manohara, Dhobi Khola, Ikchhumati, Nakkhu, Hanumante, Karmanasha, and Godavari. But they all drain out by the time they merge with Bagmati.
There are six treatment plants set around the Valley that treat the wastewater before it is allowed back to the river. But only two of them are in working conditions at present.
“We need at least 26 wastewater treatment plants at different locations in and around the Valley to convert all the sewage into water,” says Dr Siddhartha Bajracharya, Executive Officer of the National Trust for Nature Conservation. “Apart from that, we have to find more alternate water sources to maintain the water level of the river.”
According to KUKL, there are 23 surface water sources around the Valley. Besides, there are several underground water sources as well. “As it is, we’re massively exploiting the underground sources, which also harms the river’s flow,” says Khanal. “Whatever remains on the riverbed, the ground absorbs that.”
KUKL also recently installed a system at Sundarijal to extract underground water as well deep-boring works in the area.
Khanal says that is another cause of Bagmati getting dry.
Is it any worthwhile waiting to see the Bagmati with water during dry seasons?
“Well, it depends on how fast we get [the water from] Melamchi, and how well do we manage the population growth in Valley,” says Khanal.
If everything goes on time,which is hard to believe as per previous experiences, then we are going to have 170 million liters of water a day from Melamchi’s first phase in four years.
“As demand gets higher day by day,” says Tilak Mohan Bhandari, chief of operating department at KUKL, “I don’t think we can give even a single drop of water to Bagmati until the completion of the third phase of the Melamchi [Project].”
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