By Karuna Thapa
Kathmandu, March 10
The Melamchi Drinking Water Project, which was destroyed by a landslide on June 15, has had 60% of its repair work done.
The Melamchi Drinking Water Development Committee’s divisional engineer, Padam Bahadur Kunwar, said they are planning to bring water to the Kathmandu Valley, even if just temporarily.
Sino Hydro, a Chinese contractor, has reported that 60 percent of the job of cleaning the river by blasting stones has been done with the support of the Nepal Army.
The repair work has reached the ultimate level, according to Kunwar, since only gates 1, 9, and 38 of the Melamchi River will be used to provide water to Kathmandu temporarily.
Due to the failure of the hydraulic system at Gate No. 38, he added, more repair work has
begun on it, and plans have been made to temporarily connect a new gate to operate water in light of the damage to the existing gates. Water may be transported to Kathmandu by mid-April, according to the committee, because the process of cleaning the stones and mud has been done.
The goal of Kathmandu Valley residents to drink Melamchi water, which was contaminated by floods and landslides on June 15, was put back. According to Kunwar, the committee hopes to supply 170 million liters of water per day in the Kathmandu Valley by April, but the tunnel would be closed for another four months if it rains.
He stated that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is undertaking a landslide prevention study following a significant landslide at the main entrance. Kunwar stated that the tunnel has reached the last stage of blasting, claiming that 60,000 metric tons of Gregan dirt collected in the tube has been removed. He stated that the gregan dirt generated by blasting was controlled by constructing a road and dumping it.
