By Deepak Gajurel

KATHMANDU, Nepal, May 7, 2002 (ENS) - Sunita Sharma is up with the larks to fill all the buckets in her home in the Nepali capital so that her family of six has water to drink, water for household chores and, if they are lucky, water to bathe with.

The early bird adage is true for Sharma, and hundreds of thousands like her in this water starved city every summer.

Pashupatinath temple on the sacred Bagmati River (Photo courtesy Stephan Burwitz)

The dry season has only just started and already taps across the city of nearly 1.5 million residents have run dry. Experts warn that things will only get worse as the season progresses.

The daily water demand of this culturally rich city is around 170 million liters, but only 90 million liters are available, according to the Nepal Drinking Water Supply Corporation (NDWSC), the sole government utility for drinking water supply.

An estimated 40 percent of the city's water supply is lost through leakage.

No significant addition has been made in the water pool since 1980, while the population of Kathmandu is growing at an annual rate of 14.6 percent. Every year the daily water demand increases by eight million liters water.

Due to the scarcity of water, the NDWSC has scheduled a "load shedding" for water supply in the taps of Kathmandu. Morning, afternoon and evening are scheduled for different areas to get their water supply. Every area has its turn once in two days, for about an hour.

Kathmandu man fills his buckets at the fountain in Durbar Square (Photo credit unknown)

To ease the thirsty city during the hours of acute water shortage, the Nepal Drinking Water Supply Corporation has mobilized its 10 water tankers to distribute water.

Dozens of private tankers are also operating daily, supplying water pumped directly from contaminated rivers or streams. Government agencies have not been effective in monitoring and checking these private tankers.

"Drinking such water without boiling or properly treating can pose serious hazards to public health," warn city health officials. "Waterborne epidemics are not something new in such situations," they say.

Kathmandu residents washing vegetables in the Bagmati River (Photo courtesy Laurenz Bobke)

The government seems serious about moving in that direction, at least in words if not deeds. A huge water scheme for the Melamchi River, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) north east of the valley, has been talked about for 10 years. The proposed project is expected to bring about 1.5 liters of water per second to Kathmandu. However, this dream project is not expected to bear fruit at least for another decade.

It is not that the government has done nothing. A 25 year plan, The Water Resources Strategy, is in place to provide safe drinking water and sanitation facilities to all people in Kathmandu.

The policy aims to ensure access to water supply for 85 percent of the population by 2007, access to a potable water supply for all people by 2012, and a 50 percent decrease in water related health problems by 2027.

But the strategy, approved by the government in October 2000, is stalled somewhere in the Ministry of Housing and Physical Planning.