The sophisticated laboratories that can gauge water quality and also calibrate water meters were set up in the five development regions with 62 percent funding from the Asian Development Bank. [break]
The labs set up inside already-existing buildings alone are worth Rs 15 million, according to Tiresh Khatri, deputy project manager of STWSSP Phase 2, who also oversaw the first phase of the project.
The labs were set up with the goal of ensuring safe drinking water to all by 2015, one of the Millennium Development Goals.
But till today, consumers have still not been able to get benefit from the laboratories as they have yet to come into operation.
Due to the inability of the government to ascertain the tariff for water quality testing and also a confusion over which government agency would get the revenue the laboratories generate, the general public is unable to get tap water tested and compelled to pay higher price for the test at private labs.
Water Quality Improvement and Monitoring Section (WQIMS) set up sophisticated laboratories in Itahari in the eastern region, Kathmandu in the central region, Pokhara in the Western Region, Nepalgunj in the mid-western region and Kailali in the far-western region three years ago.
But the government hasn´t even recruited technicians and necessary manpower in the labs except in Kathmandu.
According to a knowledgeable source of the WQIMS, Ministry of Physical Planning and Works is not willing to fix the tariff because revenue generated by the labs will go to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).
“The tariffs collected from the labs go to the Inland Revenue Department, and the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works has to pay for the employees and other essential equipment which is used in laboratory. So the ministry seems uninterested,” the source said.
WQIMS is running its Kathmandu laboratory for official testing purpose, but the general public cannot get water tested at the lab.
Senior Divisional Engineer of WQIMS Hari Prasad Pandey, however, said WQIMS is planning to hire a consultant to frame tariff and related policies.
“We are going to hire a consultant to make the policy and to fix the tariff,” Pandey said “After the cabinet approves the act and regulations for the laboratory, it will be open to the general public also.”
Pandey revealed that WQIMS has sent draft act and regulations to the ministry but the ministry has asked WQIMS to review them.
Drinking water quality has direct impact on human health. Every year an estimated 15,000 children die in Nepal due to water-borne diseases.
Related story
Speed up testing
