CHONG ZI LIANG

Sunita Bujhel wakes up before dawn every other day to join the queue up at the public tap in Satdobato. After waiting all day she (pictured) returns home at around 3.30 PM carrying two jerrycans of water to last her family for the next two days.

The recent rainfall that broke the six month drought has provided no relief, and the decrease in power cuts has only made things worse. As soon as the power comes on in the morning, shops and houses that have electric pumps quickly draw up the water, leaving no water for those waiting at the taps.

MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA

"It's difficult," sighs Sunita, "even though we try to save as much as we can."

ROMA ARYAL

The desperation is boiling into anger on the streets. Two weeks ago, locals held a strike in Basantapur and women from Bhaktapur had a sit-in in front of the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited office. Fights often erupt at the water queues. Last week, there was a clash in Satdobato at 1AM when a neighbourhood house drew most of the water those in line had been waiting for since the previous day.

Buying water is expensive. One 5,000 litre tanker costs up to Rs 2,000. Families load up on small plastic jars, costing Rs 300 initially, and Rs 60 per refill. An average four-member family usually consumes up to 15 jars a month. The owner of a gas cylinder shop has recently diversified into selling water jars. "People are getting frantic," says the shopkeeper, "most families use the jars for almost everything: washing dishes, bathing, drinking water."

CHONG ZI LIANG

Khanepani Limited has increased the number of trucks supplying water, and even injects water into the mains. But this makes little difference. The valley demand is currently 280 million litres per day, but supply is less than 90 million litres.

In Mangal Bajar, though, the community has got together to manage water. In Kumbeswor, local committees regulate water queues and store well water and mains supply in 10,000 litre tanks. At the public spout in Imukhel there are rules on water use. At Patan Darbar Square, committee members raise money to maintain the sunken spouts.
Another solution is rainwater harvesting, but most rain storage has gone dry because of the prolonged drought. A system to store rainwater for four months after the monsoon costs Rs 30,000 for a 7,500 litre system. But for that, households would still have to wait for the monsoon, and that is three months away.

Melamchi mirage

CHONG ZI LIANG

For the parched and thirsty capital, the only hope on the horizon is the Melamchi project that aims to bring glacier melt from the Langtang National Park to Sundarijal via a 16km tunnel. The project has been planned for 15 years, but it still seems like a mirage.

The project was delayed by political instability and the conflict, but things started moving two years ago. It is now slated for completion by 2013 after the signing of a Rs 4.28 billion contract with a joint venture between a Chinese company and a local company.

There are still critics who say there are cheaper alternatives to Melamchi, but their voices have gone hoarse. Experts say just fixing the capital's Rana-era water mains would increase water supply by 40 per cent because that is the proportion that is lost to leaky pipes. Another alternative to Melamchi would be to build a series of reservoirs on the Valley rim to store water from the Bagmati's tributaries.