Kathmandu, May 31
The Melamchi Water Supply Project says it has once again closed water distribution in the Kathmandu valley beginning Tuesday.
The project resumed delivering water to Kathmanduites’ households around a month ago after a gap of one year. However, it has closed the supply line again citing risks of overflow in the monsoon season and the damages it would cause to the system.
Now, the project aims to resume the supply in late October only.
“We have closed the tunnel until mid-October. We will open it after analysing the weather situations then,” an official says.
The Melamchi water project sent water to the tunnel directly after constructing a temporary dam. Once the monsoon rains intensify, the officials fear the tunnel will be damaged if the provisional arrangement will continue.
Moreover, there are risks that the catchment area will witness floods and landslides as seen in the previous monsoon.
A massive flood in Melamchi in June 2021 severely damaged the infrastructures of the Melamchi water project making it unable to resume the water supply to the capital suspended for two months for some technical works. For the first time, the project launched the water supply just in March 2021.
