Outage takes toll on water supply

Outage takes toll on water supply
ekantipur, 12-Jan-09

Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL), the sole supplier of drinking water in the Valley is distributing 10 million litres of water less than the usual every day volume due to lack of electricity to pump ground water.

The daily demand of drinking water inside the Valley is 230 million litres, whereas KUKL is now supplying only 110 million litres of water every day, said Richard Austin, managing director of KUKL. It used to supply 120 million litres water before the 16-hour-load-shedding schedule was introduced.

With the onset of dry season, the Valley has to depend on ground water sources for 60 percent of its drinking water needs. Water pumps are used to pump water from underground sources, according to KUKL.

Officials said, increased load shedding has hit Gongabu area harder than other places. The production of drinking water from pumps has decreased by two-thirds in Gongabu. There are ten pumps in operation in the area and they used to produce 90.5 million litres of water daily. This volume has now gone down.

Places like Kirtipur, Gokarna and Mulpani are also facing problems producing drinking water from underground sources due to load shedding. KUKL operates 69 tube wells in the capital .

According to Chandra Lal Nakarmi, director at KUKL, smooth supply of drinking water to households has also been seriously affected due to power cuts.

Nakarmi said, KUKL is operating five diesel-run generators to generate electricity for the production and supply of drinking water to about 160,000 consumers in Kathmandu. "The operation cost has significantly increased with the use of generators," said Nakarmi. Meanwhile, KUKL is planning to bring 12 diesel-run generators to carry out smooth supply of drinking water to households even during load shedding hours. Austin said, the work of installing generators at places that produce more water is going on.

"We have demanded funds from the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works to operate diesel-run generators," he said.