Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) is a project to supply drinking water to

Kathmandu Valley The Kathmandu Valley (), also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley (, Newar language, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः), National Capital Area, is a bowl-shaped valley located in the Himalayas, Hima ...

by diverting of water per day. The project started in November of 1998 and completed in April of 2021. The intake of this project is located in Melamchi,

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (Nepal) Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport () is the governmental body of Nepal mainly responsible for domestic transport and rail transport as well as waterways. Organisational structure While the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil ...

is the executing agency for the Project and Melamchi Water Supply Development Board is the implementing agency. This project was mainly financed by

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...

. About 57% of the project cost was loan, 16% was grant and 26% was financed by the Nepalese government.

Project description

The intake of the project lies in the Melamchi valley in the gorge below Ghwakan, just upstream of the confluence of

Melamchi River Melamchi River (Nepali: मेलम्चि खोला) is a tributary of the Indrawati River. It originates from the Jugal Himal at an elevation of about above sea level. It joins the Indrawati River at Melamchi Bazaar. Morphology The Mela ...

and Ribarma Khola. The main structure is the diversion weir, river-training structures, and sediment exclusion basin. A gravity concrete weir is high with the crest at an elevation of asl. The control system and the sediment exclusion basin have a design capacity of . The sediment exclusion basins are double-chambered with a length of each.Ghanashyam, David Lees, and A. Niaz. “The Melamchi Water Supply Project,” 2015 The tunnel intake is at an elevation of about and the outlet is about asl. The length of the tunnel from the intake to the water purification facilities in Kathmandu Valley at Sundarijal is about . The tunnel is longest water supply tunnel of South-Asia and second longest water supply tunnel in Asia. The tunnel is being excavated from Adits at Ambathan, Gyalthum, Sindhu, and Sundarijal Waterfall. The diversion flow of . The tunnel has a cross-sectional area of and lined with shotcrete in most of the section; concrete lining is done only in the weak rock formation. The tunnel is excavated by drill and blast method. The geology of the areas consists mainly of gneiss with mica schist and laminated quartzite. The distribution work has nine service reservoirs at various locations in the Kathmandu (Mahankalchaur, Bansbari, Paani Pokhari, Balaju, Khumaltar, Arubari, Tigni, Katunje and Kritipur). The water from Sundarijal to Service Reservoir is supplied by a Bulk Distribution System (BDS). The distribution to households is done by a network of pipes about long. About of sewerage network will also be upgraded in this project.

Delays

The project had a serious history of delays. Some are mentioned below, *In 2007 August, the ministry of physical planning, Hislia Yami, cancelled the contract awarded to UK company

Severn Trent Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales. It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Severn Trent, the ...

claiming that Severn Trent did not have a sufficiently strong international track record. *In September 2012, the contract with China Railway 15 Bureau Group Corporation was terminated. *In 2018, the deadline was extended to mid-February 2019 with CMC, the contractor. *In 2019, the contract with Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna (CMC) was terminated over payment dispute.

Accidents

*2020-July 14: During testing of the tunnel, the breaking of bulkhead gate caused flooding in the tunnel resulting in the death of two staff. *2021-June 15: Due to monsoon flood, the headworks of the project at Ambathan area was blocked by flood. Temporary structures such as construction camps and Bailey bridges swept away. Eight workers including three Chinese, three Indians and two Nepalis were washed away by the flood.

Corruption

* In 2005, Prime Minister

Sher Bahadur Deuba Sher Bahadur Deuba (, ; born 13 June 1946, Ashigram, Kingdom of Nepal) is a Nepali politician and former prime minister of Nepal. He has also been serving as the president of the Nepali Congress since 2016. Deuba has served five terms as prime ...

was charged for corruption by the Royal Corruption Control Commission. The case was terminated by the Supreme Court considering it as an unconstitutional move by King

Gyanendra Gyanendra Shah (born 7 July 1947) is the final monarch of Nepal, ruled from 2001 until 2008, when the monarchy was overthrown. He briefly held the throne as a child between 1950 and 1951, when his grandfather Tribhuvan and his family fled to In ...

. *In 2006,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

withdrew its funding of this project over corruption issues. * In 2019, the contractor Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna (CMC) alleged two senior Nepali bureaucrats Gajendra Kumar Thakur, a former secretary at the Water Supply Ministry, and Surya Raj Kadel, executive director of the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board asked for a cut of 3% of payment on NPR 300 million payment. This issue led CMC to break the contract with the government.“Nepali Bureaucrats Regularly Asked for ‘Their Cut’ from Melamchi Contractor, Italian Officials Say.” Accessed June 19, 2020. https://kathmandupost.com/investigations/2019/03/21/nepali-bureaucrats-regularly-asked-for-their-cut-from-melamchi-contractor-italian-officials-say .

References

External links