The Sub-Metropolitan City had spent millions of rupees through bank loans and the government grants.According to Krishna Adhikari, the then project head and also officer of the Sub-Metropolitan City, Rs 144.96 million were spent on building sewage system while Rs 40.9 million were used for constructing contaminated water processing mechanism. The construction had started in 2003 and was completed on 2010.
"The Sub-Metropolitan City has constructed one sewage processing system on the bank of Kara River and two others on the bank of Rapti River," informed Adhikari. "None of them are in operation at the moment."
Despite repeated complaints from locals, the Sub-Metropolitan City has been reluctant to take initiative to begin the operation. As the system has not come into operation, the sewage mechanism is deteriorating with every passing day. Locals blamed the negligence of the authorities for the deterioration.
Additionally, locals said that they are forced to connect drainage system of their houses directly to Rapti River and rivulets around Hetauda in lack of operational sewage mechanism. With no other option than to release sewage pipes directly into the rivers, locals are worried that such practice has been polluting the river ecosystem.
"It would benefit at least 2,115 household of Hetauda Municipality-15 if the mechanism was operated," said Adhikari. "But since the sewage system is not brought into operation, not even a single family has benefited from it.."
Krishna Shrestha, a local of Hetauda, expressed annoyance over the authorities' lax and also expressed concerns over deteriorating conditions of the rivers.
"The Sub-Metropolitan City and political parties have produced bills claiming to have spent millions of rupees in maintaining drainage and filtration systems," informed Shrestha. "Despite the high amounts of costs incurred, the project has not come into operation. The Sub-Metropolitan City and political parties have not focused their attention towards it," he added.
Shrestha even expressed doubts of financial irregularities in the project. "The concerned authorities are afraid to bring it under operation because they fear the structures may collapse as they have used substandard materials," he said. "Or else, there is no other reason for not bringing such expensive project in operation even after its completion."
According to Shrestha, the Sub-Metropolitan City was also involved in financial irregularities on 2010 while constructing drinking water tanks under urbanization and environment improvement project, in ward no. 4, 6 and 9 of the Sub-Metropolitan City. "Those tanks had leaks since its operation. The Sub-Metropolitan City just made simple temporary repairs for bringing them into use," he said. The three tanks were constructed by the Sub-Metropolitan City at the cost of Rs 190.4 millions, Adhikari said.
While constructing the underground sewage system, the project had even dismantled many black-topped roads in the Sub-Metropolitan City. This had incurred additional millions of rupees to repair the roads which took around four years.
Meanwhile, Bhagwan Aryal, chief of Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City, claimed that he is unaware that the sewage and water processing mechanism is not operating. "If the mechanism has not come under operation due to some technical problems, I'll press for its immediate repair and ensure that the project is operational," said Aryal.
The 400 million rupees project was constructed with Rs 150.24 million loan from Asian Development Bank, Rs 210.27 million grant from the government and the Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City's own fund of Rs 40 million.
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