Melamchi – a story within the story

The tussle between the Ministry of Physical Planning and Ministry of Finance came to the magnitude these days on the dilemma whether to accept ADB’s condition over Melamchi or not.
It has been passed over a decade since some “development doctors” started to write a script for a drama called Melamchi Water Supply Project. The film imagines that the residents of the Katmandu Valley are dying because they don’t have enough water so they must bring it from Melamchi river after constructing some 100 km road and 26-km tunnel !

The film was released in most of government and NGO cinemas. It hit most of the box offices because of good lobbying, western tailor-made architecture and “gwajyo” residents of the valley. Thanks to the project, some selected actors of the film were enjoying as much as over 120,000 rupees of salary per month and the residents start facing dramatic decline of water supply day by day, year by year. The more consultants, the bigger expenditure; the more the discussions the longer their tenure. What an idea to fool the people and make money out of the dream project. I never knew dreams are sold here so cheap.

What is now clear is that the Melamchi-architectures have deliberately destroyed the local water sources, indigenous technology of deriving water from stone spouts and creating a scarcity. In one decease over 30 out of 300 plus water spouts have been dried (Sundhara of Kathmandu is just one name), the Nepal Water Supply Corporation lets 40 per cent of the total water leak on the way. It has neither repaired the stone spouts, not controlled the leakage. As the simple theory goes – the demand looks for supply. So the people of the valley start believing that there is no other solution than welcoming, waiting for and buying the dream called Melamchi.

Nobody is going to give us Melamchi free of cost. Apart from small amount of grants, the Mealmchi is being constructed on the basis of loan money. Out of the 500 million US dollars for the whole project, only 120 million is being lent by the ADBbut just look at its “dadagiri”. It says that it will forward the loan money only if Nepal agrees to hire a foreign management on contract, to manage NWSC. Nepal has to welcome any Tom Dik or Harry though it is going to cost Nepal as much as Rs 11 million dollars, which is equivalent to the budget NWSC needs for running 27 branches of NWSC all over the country.

The bank has a firm of its choice called Severn Trent Water International Limited (STWIL). God knows how much money this company is going to pay to the head of ADB but it is pressurizing the Nepali government to accept it blindly. We know that this company has a very bad working image in different countries and this company came to Nepal without facing any competition. What is ADB trying to prove itself by imposing a lame candidate to participate in athletics? To me it is just like selling a packet of date-expired noodles to a boy and yelling at the boy after he falls sick.

Let ADB advocate about STWIL. But I wonder why our so-called doctors are running after the ADB as sales agents? I wonder why to brothers, Dr Ram Sharan Mahat and Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat are dying to see STWIL ruling Nepal’s Khanepani Sansthan, just because it is not their father’s property? They do not have time to go to their constituency and find proof they have their listeners/ followers there but they have plenty of time to dance according to the ADB’s rhythms.

In conclusion, I would say that the first and only right of making decision on Melamchi goes in hands of the indigenous residents of the Kathmandu Valley. What if a whimsy prime minister thinks to bring water from Gangaji for the Katmanduites? I request all the outsiders, to keep quiet. You may come here, enjoy all facilities, our forefathers have brought for you, you enjoy being a Kathmandu Basi and pollute this poor city more and more. But you do not have right to say whether Kathmandu needs Melamchi or not. You better think about your villages or towns and ask the government to provide your hometowns with this or that. We will help you fight for it. This way, we can make a whole developed Nepal.