Kathmandu, May 4
For the past few days, the Kathmandu valley is getting water from the Melamchi Water Supply Project after a hiatus of around one year. However, the water supply is almost certain to stop after some weeks again.
Project officials say the water supply will stop as soon as the monsoon begins. It will resume only around mid-October.
Currently, the project has 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. Therefore, the Melamchi water supply will stop then.
Moreover, there are risks that the catchment area will witness floods and landslides as seen in the previous monsoon.
The project chief Basu Paudel, however, says efforts will be made to ensure that the tunnel remains undamaged during the monsoon also.
A massive flood in the Sindhupalchok town in June 2021 has severely damaged the infrastructures of the Melamchi 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.
