KATHMANDU: The Melamchi Water Supply Development Board announced on Thursday that the supply of water from the Melamchi River to Kathmandu would be stopped from Friday. This was because of apprehensions regarding damage to the tunnel structures in view of floods in the river. The recent incessant rainfall resulted in a huge rise in the water level of the Melamchi River and compelled the board to take precautionary measures.
MWSDB's executive director, Ratna Lamicchane, clarified the purpose of the suspension: to prevent possible damage to the headworks caused by the water supply project. "With rising water levels in the river, there are high chances of slurry penetration into the tunnel," he said, "which could turn out to be a big disaster for the infrastructure.".
The then-President Bidya Devi Bhandari inaugurated the Melamchi Water Supply Project from the Melamchi River in April 2021. However, incessant rainfall and subsequent landslides caused floods in June of the same year, inundating the key structures of the project. The headworks at Ambathan and other structures of the project were badly damaged, causing disruptions in the water supply.
Since then, MWSDB has closed the main tunnel gate at the commencement of the monsoon period as a precautionary measure. Truly speaking, only after the end of the monsoon can you have the supply, actually learning something from the previous problems that the project has been going through due to natural disasters in the Melamchi River basin.
Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank has stepped in to provide grant assistance of over Rs 2 billion for rebuilding the headworks of the Melamchi Water Supply Project in Nepal. This would be for new headworks being planned by the MWSDB at another location, one kilometer uphill from the present site. This rehabilitation work is solely to forestall criticisms about any feasibility study concerning this project, with consideration for the aforementioned enabling of this water supply infrastructure's agility in the face of any natural disaster that may happen in the near future.
