By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Mar. 7: As water from the Melamchi River in Sindhupalchok district finally arrives in Kathmandu, hopes are high that the residents will finally be able to drink it.
The Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) began filling the 26-km-long tunnel with water since 22 February. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Saturday pressed a switch to open the gate of the tunnel at Sundarijal, letting water stored there make its way into the Kathmandu Valley.
The project has completed a water treatment facility with a capacity of treating 85-million-litre of water per day in Sundarijal while another is nearing completion. The treated water will then flow through a 1400-mm-diameter pipeline to 10 storage reservoirs around the Valley.
However, the water collected in the tunnel is not channeled to the treatment facility but diverted to the Bagmati River. According to the MWSP, it would take about two weeks to flush out the water collected in the tunnel. After that, it would be examined for about a week to prevent the occurrence of any problem in the days ahead.
Water would be sent regularly to the tunnel only after completing the process.
Earlier, the project had begun to fill the tunnel with water in July 2020. But two of its employees died as the force of the accumulated water broke one of the gates. Later, Chief of the project Tiresh Prasad Khatri had claimed that some long-term safety measures were applied in the tunnel.
The project was initially slated for completion by 2008. The total demand for water in that year was 325-million-litre per day (MLD) which is expected to reach about 500 MLD in 2022.
The government then planned to add additional 340 MLD from the Yangri and Larke rivers to the tunnel by 2022 to meet the growing demand but the second and third phases of the MWSP are yet to begin.