Unbeknownst to most of us, World Water Day came and went on 22 March without much fanfare. There were a few speeches, some seminars and more platitude. But we missed another chance to focus national attention on this precious resource which is going to determine our nation's economic growth, the health of Nepalis, and even political relations with our neighbours in the near future. It is becoming increasingly clear that although Nepal is regarded as a "water surplus" country, we suffer from huge shortfalls in the quantity and quality of water available. In many cases, this is a life and death issue: Nepal has one of the highest infant mortality rates in Asia and most of the deaths are caused by water-borne infections. Three-quarters of potentially irrigable farms are rain-fed, and the huge energy potential of falling water is largely wasted. The taps in most Kathmandu Valley households are dryer this spring than they have ever been, and the water table has fallen to record lows because of excessive pumping.

With such a glaring gap between supply and demand, it is tempting to look for quick-fix technical solutions to increase supply for Kathmandu. And because it is politicians who make these decisions, there are attractive pecuniary incentives for them to go for infrastructure solutions. (No one we know offers kickbacks for making water use more efficient.) But, as the world's foremost experts on freshwater resources, Peter Gleick, tells us on pages 10-11 of this issue, Nepal is ideally placed to make a paradigm shift in the way it looks at water from a demand-side approach. We can learn from the mistakes of others, and since we haven't started making colossal blunders yet, we are ahead of the curve.

Gleick comes from California which is a harbinger of trends for the rest of the world. And there, efficiency is the name of the game. (It's a different story that the rest of the United States hasn't yet followed suit.) Here in Nepal, our efforts to control emissions and use energy more efficiently have been governed by the principle of one step forward, two steps back.

Trying to harness water resources without first addressing the important issues of efficiency, pricing and conservation will lead us down the same path of wastage and over-consumption that have characterised developed countries. If Kathmandu Valley cut leakage and wastage of water, which is conservatively estimated at 50 percent, it would double the supply and provide 360 litres of water per tap per day in Kathmandu Valley. So where is the shortage?