Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Nepal
Submitted to:
Submitted by:
August 2004
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Acknowledgement
Also I would like to express my sincere thanks to Ms. Yoriko IIBA, Assistant Head,
International Research Division, Planning and Research Administration
Department, National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, Ministry of
Land Infrastructure and Transport, Japan for her kind cooperation and response
for the papers.
Special thanks are due to the staff of JICA, Nepal in Kathmandu for their kind
cooperation and help during the application processing.
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Bishnu Prasad Timilsina
Civil/Environmental Engineer
cried@hons.com.np
bptimilsina@hotmail.com
bishnutimilsina@yahoo.com
Abstract
The historical development of urban water system in developed countries showed a step-
by-step approach taken up by the authorities with an increasing demand as of population
growth, a progressive understanding of the environmental problems, rapid development of
technology and increasing public awareness. The cities in the developed world enjoyed a
long development period to establish the components of urban water system. However, it
may not be possible for the emerging urban water systems in developing countries to have
a long time frame as in developed countries. Therefore it is mandatory for the authorities
to visualize the problems in aggregate and bulk solutions related to the various disciplines
in a very short span of time.
When taking the case of Kathmandu Metropolitan city it is a small intra mountain valley
situated at an altitude of about 1300 m above the mean sea level having a basin area of
585 Sq. Km. It is haphazardly urbanized and has a population of 1.5 million. Water supply
meets only 64 % of total demand of 175 MLD, in spite of tapping all major sources within
its surrounding. The majority of urban areas do not have access to sewerage networks
except three cities of Kathmandu Valley. Most of the domestic wastewater generated from
these cities is discharged into the local rivers without any treatment. Out of the total urban
population only 76 % have access to toilets while the remaining use open spaces,
riverbanks for defecation.
Urban water supply and sewerage systems face a number of problems in the country.
Existing water supply systems are becoming antiquated while urban growth has rapidly
increased the number of people requiring new services. In most cases, sewer and sewage
treatment systems are lacking not functioning, or operating at far below the capacity and
standards required for municipalities. In addition, many towns of the country are unable to
operate schemes in a financially viable manner while providing the quality of service
necessary to satisfy customers' expectations.
In order to have sustainable and efficient water system following should be the guiding
principles
o Community management
o Cost-effective and appropriate technology
o Partnership (Public-Private)
o Integrated approach of water environment management
The urban water environment in the country should be managed in holistic approach
rather than the conventional one. Holistic approach puts emphasis on sets of relations
considering a system to be product of various components. But reductionist approach
basically treats the system in isolation by breaking down the linkages.
Holistic analysis offers new and sustainable solutions, which could otherwise be
overlooked if the urban water problems are only dealt with conventional reductionist
approach. Based on the principles of complexity of science and sustainability, it is
desirable to look at the interactions and interrelationships among various elements of
urban water system. Technologies that are flexible and based on adaptive management
must be explored and applied.
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1. Background
When taking the case of Kathmandu Metropolitan city it is a small intra mountain
valley situated at an altitude of about 1300 m above the mean sea level having a
basin area of 585 Sq. Km. It is haphazardly urbanized and has a population of 1.5
million. Water supply meets only 64 % of total demand of 175 MLD, in spite of
tapping all major sources within its surrounding. The majority of urban areas do not
have access to sewerage networks except three cities of Kathmandu Valley. The
domestic wastewater generated from these cities is discharged into the local rivers
without any treatment. Out of the total urban population only 76 % have access to
toilets while the remaining use open spaces, riverbanks for defecation.
The present sewerage network in Kathmandu and Lalitpur consists of about 200
Km of sewer lines. Most of sewage except Patan area is supposed to flow by
gravity to the sump well at Sundarighat, from where it is to be pumped to the
wastewater treatment plant at Dhobighat. This pump is provided with 2 anaerobic
ponds and 1 facultative pond; having design capacity 15.4 MLD. The plant is not in
operation due to non-functioning of pumping station and breakage of pumping
main laid across the bed of Bagmati River. Wastewater facilities development and
management is poor.
The Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS) has started to construct
a sewage system of about 6 Km. of sewer line and a treatment plant (lagoon type)
on 20.54 hectors to serve design population of 53000 in Thimi. The newly
constructed WWTP 17.3 MLD at Guheshwori by BASP is the only plant operational
in the Valley.
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Urban water supply and sewerage systems face a number of problems in the
country. Existing water supply systems are becoming antiquated while urban
growth has rapidly increased the number of people requiring new services. In most
cases, sewer and sewage treatment systems are lacking not functioning, or
operating at far below the capacity and standards required for municipalities. In
addition, many towns of the country are unable to operate schemes in a financially
viable manner while providing the quality of service necessary to satisfy customers'
expectations.
When Melamchi water started to supply, that brings more water to Kathmandu,
and as a result there will be more wastewater as well. The present sewage system
in the valley would be behind the capacity to receive all wastewater.
Environmental Issues
Social Issues
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• Water problems create serious social concerns that must be resolved
either locally or with political intervention. Examples include flooding,
lack of drinking water and proper sanitation including municipal and
industrial wastewater management.
Legal Issues
• Drinking water supply is inadequate and the quality supplied does not meet
the water quality standard for drinking purpose and furthermore, the treated
water whatever of quality is used for gardening, car washing and toilet
flushing. However the grey water after some sort of treatment can be
reused for other purposes as gardening and toilet flushing but not practiced
in massive way.
• The treatment facilities are limited only for the WW from core area of the city
and WW from other parts is directly discharged into water body even
without primary treatment and the treated WW does not satisfy the effluent
standards.
• The inner drainage system is very old and need rehabilitation.
• Clogging of sewer pipe due to the some left over garbage after collection is
a common problem in the city.
• Most of urban cities don't have WW management plan. In Kathmandu
Valley several studies have been made to develop plan but it has been not
adopted and implemented due to the lack of funds to undertake large-scale
construction.
• Several studies have been done to develop strategic plan and policies for
urban water environment in Kathmandu Valley but it has been not adopted
and implemented due to the lack of sufficient fund and political willingness
to undertake large-scale constructions. Wastewater (WW) management is
always neglected, and had least priority in the plan and polices.
• Overlapping of responsibilities among government agencies in WW
management.
• Inefficient regulations, standards, and weak regulatory system to control
pollution.
• Haphazard urbanization and the land use planning are not proper.
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• Revenue generation as water tariff is insufficient to be self-sustaining and
not recover operation and maintenance cost of the facilities. However in
principle the capital cost recovery has been emphasized.
• Manpower: Sewage treatment plants are not equipped with qualified and
trained manpower to operate them efficiently.
The primary components include natural water resources such as surface water
sources, groundwater sources or rainwater; receiving water; inner water bodies
(canals, ponds, rivers and streams). Hardware for water supply systems include
intake, transmission main, treatment plant, service reservoir, distribution system
and household connections as household tanks. Similarly, for wastewater systems
the infrastructure hardware includes household appliances (washing basin,
washing machine, bathroom, toilet), onsite septic tank systems, sewerage network,
treatment plants, recycling facilities, and outfalls. The hardware for storm water
management include collection network, impounding reservoirs, treatment plants
and disposal units. On the software side the stakeholders include state or
administration, politicians, managing authority, engineering companies, consumers,
professional associations, people, farmers, fire service, city planner, media and
neighboring cities. Moreover, the guiding principles, which facilitate the
stakeholders, to make their strategy and carry out the actions include professional
ethics, scientific judgment, legislation, regulations, decision-making rules,
standards and technical norms.
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The prioritized plan for improvements includes three areas of improvement:
Institutional, Constructional and Baseline Engineering. The institutional
improvements include expansion of by law, rule and regulations, water tariff reform
and setting, and institutional management overhaul. The construction program is
extensive and has been prioritized and spread over 20 years. There are needs
related to baseline engineering, both immediate and longer term. Immediate action
is recommended to initiate implementation of the Updated Master Plan.
In order to solve the problems of water and wastewater in Kathmandu the following
strategy will be adapted:
The following guiding principles are needed to have sustainable and efficient water
system for urban setting.
In order to achieve the above mentioned guided principles the following measures
are essential.
• "Polluter should pay" Policy: This principle should form the basis of overall
policy in the wastewater management area. Those who pollute should pay
for the adverse impact they are having on the environment.
• Discharges regulations should be developed that specify the minimum
quality required before a discharge is allowed. These regulations should
also specify fees and charges depending on the flow and quality of the
discharge.
• HMGN needs to established the priority for wastewater management and
delegate overall authority for wastewater planning, management and
regulations enforcement.
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• Discharges should be licensed- whether they are discharges into the
collection system or discharges directly to a surface water body. For high
strength discharges, pre treatment should be required.
• And, finally the HMG/N agency responsible for enforcement should work
with the community and industry to improve the quality and reduce the
quantity of discharges.
Sanitation, at this point in time can be described as a very serious concern. Public
health is probably impacted by poor sanitation. The lack of proper wastewater
management is not just deteriorating the local environment but may also be
responsible for high rates of waterborne disease. Adequate public toilets, proper
septic tank cleaning and Septage treatment, and construction of interceptor sewers
are immediately necessary to improve sanitation and reduce the deterioration of
surface and ground water quality.
4. Wastewater Facilities
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5. Regulations
The government has the responsibility for setting and enforcing regulations for
environmental and natural resources protection. The government has a
complement of applicable regulations; however some are conflicting and
overlapping. Also regulations are lacking that would protect ground water and
surface water quality by setting discharge criteria on treated or untreated
wastewater and Septage. In addition regulatory control over ground water use
citing of polluting facilities, and permitting of major wastewater discharge is lacking.
6. Revenue Generation
Current levels of tariff collection are inadequate to build and operate wastewater
facilities to serve the community. There is no broad based program for assessing
fees to industrial, commercial or other large wastewater dischargers who stress the
system. And finally, there are indications that there are wastewater system users
who never pay anything either because they have their own water sources or
because they have illegal connected. These aspects augur for reform in the ways
in which users are charged for the wastewater services they receive now and for
the services that will be needed in the future to protect the common environment.
Recommendation
The planning and policymaking procedures should be started on a very broad
scale. There should be a mechanism to define the boundaries based on
operational criteria rather than initial criteria. The problems are looked with a global
perspective but the solutions are pursued at the local levels. For example, dealing
with wastes as close to the location of production as possible reduces the
problems associated with the mixing and increases the reuse potential.
The urban water environment in the country should be managed in holistic
approach rather than the conventional one. Holistic approach puts emphasis on
sets of relations considering a system to be product of various components. But
reductionist approach basically treats the system in isolation by breaking down the
linkages.
Holistic analysis offers new and sustainable solutions, which could otherwise be
overlooked if the urban water problems are only dealt with conventional
reductionist approach. Based on the principles of complexity of science and
sustainability, it is desirable to look at the interactions and interrelationships among
various elements of urban water system. Technologies that are flexible and based
on adaptive management must be explored and applied.
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Table 1 Wastewater Treatment Plants
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References:
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