Water Contamination Crisis: Nepal’s Water Nightmare
Asia Pacific / http://www.channelnewsasia.com
Summary:
In the land of 6,000 rivers, a contamination crisis: Nepal’s water nightmare
The 2015 earthquake ruined water and sanitation infrastructure across Nepal, turning access to clean water into a nightmare. Get Real looks at the issue.
Article:
Nepal, the land of 6,000 rivers, is facing a water crisis that has residents queueing for hours to buy water. And even then, it’s not always safe to drink, Get Real finds out. Read more: In the land of 6,000 rivers, a Read Nepal’s water nightmare
Every day, Daya Laxmi lugs home pots of water from a nearby well for her daily needs. The water is contaminated with the E Coli (Escherichia coli) bacteria but she still uses it to wash and cook food for her children. The water is so dirty that after Madam Laxmi washes her rice, the grains sometimes turn black.
The E Coli bacteria can cause severe diarrhoea, kidney failure and even death, but this mother of two has little choice. The family is living in a temporary government camp after the April 2015 Gorkha earthquake destroyed her village and killed nearly 9,000 people in Nepal.
Those who cannot afford to buy water, like Daya Laxmi, have to make do with murky well water.
As the government stopped delivering water to Madam Laxmi’s camp three months after the earthquake, she now relies mostly on the water from the well.
“They gave excuses like the shortage of petrol and stopped bringing water. I feel that the government has abandoned us,” she said, adding that when she approached local officials for help, they asked her to buy water instead.
But buying water is an expensive luxury for her when she is surviving on US$1 a day.
About 30 other destitute families like hers depend on contaminated water from the well. Ironically, they are living in one of the most water-abundant countries in the world where fresh water flows down the mountains, into thousands of rivers, lakes and springs.
But Nepal is suffering from a water crisis - partly due to the uncontrolled discharge of industry, domestic waste and untreated sewage into its rivers and lakes.
This situation worsened after the earthquake destroyed water systems and networks, leaving many with little access to clean, safe drinking water, as investigative programme Get Rea! finds out.
In Kathmandu Valley - the most developed and populated place in Nepal - the 4 million residents there use around 320 million litres of water every day. The government, however, can only meet 20 per cent of that demand, especially during the dry season, reported The Himalayan Times.
Resident Jwala Devi Sahi said she pays at least US$1.40 a month to get water from a government-installed tap in her building. However, the water supply comes once in eight days, and only for an hour.
“There is no timetable, sometimes we get water in the morning at about 5am or sometimes in the evening at around 7pm. You never know," she said.
Sometimes I wait and wait. Sometimes we are deprived of sleep while waiting and it affects our work, but there is still no sign of water.
People have resorted to buying water from private water sellers who get their supplies from the water factories or rivers. But most of the water supplies in Kathmandu are contaminated.
To find out how unsafe the water is, Get Rea! took samples of water from six sites in Nepal. The samples were sent to the Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) to be tested.
What it found: Water from a well, public stone spouts and a tanker contained the E Coli bacteria. In Nepal, one of the main causes of death among children is diarrhoeal dehydration caused by contaminated water.
Water activist Prakash Amatya was appalled at some of the results. “I cannot imagine people using this water (from the well) for cooking, which is completely unacceptable,” he said.
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