KAVRE: Clean drinking water has been supplied to 6,000 households in Panchkhal Municipality with the successful implementation of the Panchkhal–Sunkoshi Drinking Water Project.
Since Saturday, a total of 31,000 residents have gained access to safe drinking water at home.
According to Kumar Lamichhane, Chairperson of the Consumers’ Committee, the project officially began distributing water to all 6,000 households from Saturday morning. Approximately 99 percent of the physical infrastructure of the under-construction project has now been completed.
Following the repair and reconstruction of facilities damaged by last September’s floods and landslides, water is now being sourced from the Sunkoshi River, processed at the water treatment plant in Dandagaun, Panchkhal Municipality-9, and distributed to households.
The treatment center has a capacity of 3.9 million liters. Water is first stored in an overhead tank and tested in each target settlement before being supplied to homes.
“We have requested the public to report any faults during water distribution to the committee office,” said Lamichhane. He added that water is being pumped from the source to the treatment center at a rate of 84 liters per second at full capacity and then sent to consumers.
The committee’s initial plan to begin water distribution in October was delayed due to flood and landslide damage, which submerged the project’s source area and destroyed about 75 meters of the surrounding wall.
Mud and debris accumulation, as well as damage to distribution pipes and infrastructure at 48 locations—costing an estimated Rs 17 million—further delayed the project.
Designed to serve the projected population of Panchkhal for the next 20 years, the project has now resumed successfully after several time extensions, made possible through coordination with donor agencies.
While formal inauguration is still pending, the system is already capable of supplying 302,400 liters of water per hour—allowing for 20 hours of continuous supply, totaling over 6 million liters daily.
The infrastructure built along the Sunkoshi River includes six wells, two 400,000-liter water collection tanks, a 300,000-liter backwash overhead tank, ten new distribution tanks, six brake pressure tanks, and fifteen water sheds.
Additional components include five generator houses, perimeter fencing, a six-kilometer main transmission line, 35 out of 37 kilometers of branch transmission lines, and 220 out of 230 kilometers of distribution pipelines. In total, 6,037 water taps are now in operation.
The project was initiated under an agreement signed on Asar 15, 2077 BS, between the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation (Regional) Project, the Municipal Development Fund, Panchkhal Municipality, and the local water users.
To meet the town’s growing water needs, physical infrastructure and lifting systems have been built on the banks of the Sunkoshi River in Bumire, Bhumlu Rural Municipality-10.
The total cost of the project is Rs 1.474 billion. It now serves 31,415 residents across 6,037 households in Wards 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 of Panchkhal Municipality.
Each individual is expected to receive 192.05 liters of water daily. The project aims to benefit 45,000 people by 2040.
Under the financing model, the donor agency, in collaboration with the Government of Nepal, contributed five percent of the project’s cost.
Each household contributed Rs 18,000, totaling Rs 115 million. Notably, 214 underprivileged households accessed loans through local cooperative organizations to cover their contributions.
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