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Unsafe drinking water:
Health hazard in Nepal
NEPAL: Unsafe drinking water could potentially cause a serious health
hazard for residents in the Nepali capital Kathmandu Valley, experts
warned.
According to Sunday’s The Himalayan Times daily, low-income people
who rely on the supplied water and have no means to afford bottled
mineral water, are the major ones to suffer. The drinking water
currently supplied by the Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL)
has been reported to be tainted with dangerous levels of chemicals,
viruses and bacteria, the newspaper reported.
What is even more worrisome is the fact that the drinking water pipes
run parallel to the leaking sewerage pipes, resulting in the possible
fusion of two pipes contaminating the drinking water, the newspaper
said.
Fear of getting sick, even the officials at the helms of affairs,
working for the safety of the drinking water, have resorted to using
bottled mineral water for drinking.
Bishnu Kumar Karki, a technical officer at the KUKL, said he would
rather drink bottled mineral water but not the supplied water. “At home
I am forced to use contaminated water but in my office, I am using jar
water,” he said, adding that the problem of drinking water in the
Kathmandu Valley is a complex one, which he said is hard to ascertain.
Conservative estimates show that roughly 27 percent of the total
population in the Kathmandu Valley has access to safe drinking water.
The government had some years back installed three treatment plants
but the plants are not brought into proper use, said a KUKL official.
Kathmandu, Monday, Xinhua |
