Government reinstates Melamchi Water Supply Development Board

KATHMANDU: The government has reactivated the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board. During a cabinet meeting, the Board was established and the recently issued Melamchi Water Supply Development Committee (Formation) Order-2079 was discussed.

The remainder of the project came to a standstill after the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board decided to cancel the budget for the current fiscal year 2022–2023. The operational Melamchi Water Supply Development Board lost its ability as a result.

Even though it was stated in the budget that the committee’s work would fall under the purview of the Water and Sewerage Management Department, this was not feasible.

The Melamchi water supply project was recently untangled by the government, which recently issued a new formation order. To tighten its hold on the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board, the government has made new arrangements.

It has been agreed that the Ministry of Water Supply may choose and appoint two members of the board of directors of the committee, one from the local level of the project-affected area and one from the beneficiary local level of Melamchi’s water supply.

The Minister of Water Supply and Sanitation’s selection of two new operators for the board has reportedly cleared the way for them. Currently, the CEO of the Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Board is a member of the Melamchi board.

The executive director of the committee will serve as the member secretary of the board, which is presided over by the secretary of the ministry of water supply. The joint secretary of the ministry of finance will also serve as a member and be a representative of the affected area.

The government is still debating who to send to a committee established in accordance with donor organizations, such as the Asian Development Bank, to bring water from Melamchi to supply drinking water to the valley. The project’s rest of the plan has been put on hold as a result of this.

The project’s headwork suffered significant damage from the flood and landslide that occurred in the Melamchi River on June 15, 2022, and as a result, water can only be brought in for about six months of the year.

The prepared and operational water filtration system (descender) was buried at the source following the Melamchi flood. The condition of those structures beneath the surface of the river has not yet been investigated through excavation. The geological conditions at the project’s source and above it have been studied by the technical team of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), but the results have not been made public.

Every May 29 until the end of the wet season and the onset of winter until the spring of the project is restored, Melamchi Tunnel should be shut down. If it is not closed during the rainy season, there is a chance that the tunnel will be flooded and damaged.

The committee’s revival, according to project spokesperson Rajendra Pant, has made it possible to continue with the construction work so that water can be delivered within a year. The action plan will be discussed and determined as necessary following the board meeting, he promised.

He claimed that the board had already calculated the cost of erecting a temporary structure in order to prepare a permanent spring to draw water from Melamchi during the rainy season. The committee should research, choose, and decide where and when to construct the fountain structure.

As a structure needs to be built to protect springs that may experience significant flooding in the future, there is uncertainty regarding where to build such a spring and who will invest in it. The Melamchi water supply project no longer has ADB’s support. The government is now unsure of where to find funding to prepare new structures so that water can be brought from Melamchi all year long after constructing a new structure.

According to spokesperson Pant, there is a plan to build permanent structures to transport water continuously from Melamchi to Kathmandu. He declared that the committee will now move forward to fully utilize the structure, including the tunnel, which was constructed for an estimated 34 billion.