Drinking water management has not become law; Complaint

Drinking water is on the list of local level rights. However, no act has been formulated yet for the management of drinking water.

Uma Shankar Yadav, program manager of the Nepal Municipal Association, said that it is unfortunate that no law or policy has been formulated in sensitive areas like water so far. "Drinking water is a sensitive area," he said.

Tulsipur Sub-metropolis has not been able to make a separate act for drinking water. Areas like drinking water are looked at in connection with health, sanitation and environment. He said that laws and policies should be formulated by giving priority to drinking water. "Education, health, social and other committees have their own committees," he said. "But, drinking water does not have its own committee." The social, environment and health branches of the sub-metropolis jointly look after drinking water.

Secretary of Tulsipur Drinking Water Consumers and Sanitation Association Sevakaram Bhandari said that there was a problem due to lack of thematic committee. According to him, the local government does not know what kind of water the people are forced to drink and how many taps there are.

 He said that it was felt that the local government had not shown any interest in drinking water. Vice-Chairman of the organization Sitaram Sharma said that the thematic training is being imparted by the employees of the city and other people without giving the thematic training to the drinking water officials. He said that they are still forced to supply water from the river and that water has not been able to reach the market.

Chief of Tulsipur Sub-metropolis Ghanshyam Pandey said that drinking water has not been handed over to the local government yet. Due to that, the drinking water organization here has not been able to coordinate with the local government, he said. He said that the drinking water company was treating the local government like a parallel government.

Even though the country has moved to federalism, there is still an old law. He said that drinking water has not been transferred to the local level yet as no amendment has been made and new act has not been drafted.