Govt’s tall claims on clean drinking water fall flat

Only 15.3 percent of the total population receives hygienic drinking water purified through several layers of filtration

KATHMANDU, March 23: As part of its attempt to meet the national target of connecting every household to piped drinking water by 2017, the government has expanded the coverage to 83.59 percent of the total population.

Despite the success, a large section of the population is still deprived of government supplied drinking water because very few are in working condition.

Although around 58 percent of the households have been connected with piped water across the country, no more than 30 percent of the water supply lines are functioning, according to the status report on Water and Sanitation released by the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS).

The report shows that half of the total pipelines need to be repaired. The report suggests that only 15.3 percent of the total population receives hygienic drinking water purified through several layers of filtration.

As per the status report, Eastern Development Region (EDR) has the highest percentage of access to piped drinking water at 27.2 percent, which is better than 24.3 percent of Western Development Region.

Meanwhile, people residing in the mountains have the least access with 22.2 percent. Just 24.5 percent of the people in hills have access to tap water. The Tarai region has 34.1 percent of well functioning taps, whereas 33 percent of them need to be either reconstructed or repaired, the report states.

Thirty-seven percent of the households depend upon tube wells. Among the public using the preserved point to fetch the drinking water from the spring and well, 4.6 percent are using water from spring and 1.6 percent from well. The public consciousness toward rainwater harvesting is still low with only 0.35 percent of them adopting it.

The government report does not comprise those fetching drinking water from river and stream. The government’s own report suggests that over 30,000 infants die in Nepal every year, with water-borne diseases causing most of the fatality.

Officials admit inefficiency in maintenance and reconstruction of the water resources, with most of them on the verge of collapse.

“Till now, the government prioritized installing pipes for connecting households with drinking water facility,” said Kabindra Bikram Karki, assistant spokesperson of the Ministry of Urban Development. “Now the authority is shifting focus toward making the water availability regular,” he added.

While water shortage of water in the valley is not a new story, its availability elsewhere in the country is not encouraging either.

Unchecked exploitation of natural resources, extraction of sand and stones from rivers, timber smuggling, careless damage of hills and mountains for road construction and so on have taken toll on the environment resulting in the loss of natural water resources in several districts.

For instance, in the last five years, water problem has forced hundreds of people in Paanchthar district to migrate from their villages. Similarly, lack of clean drinking water makes scores of people in Tarai districts fall sick each monsoon.