Drop by drop

KATHMANDU'S summer of discontent seems to have set in. As the residents of the capital city of Nepal faced an unprecedented drinking water shortage, Bimarsha, a Kathmandu weekly, reported that the World Bank had withdrawn its $60 million support from the rehabilitation of the urban drinking water supply in the Kathmandu valley because of corruption scandals.

Kathmandu needs 120 million litres of water daily. Supply is, however, a meagre 60 million litres a day. The government has been unable to mitigate the suffering of the 1.5 million inhabitants of Kathmandu valley. Instead, the people were told by the minister for housing and physical planning, Bal Bahadur Rai, to wait for 5 years till the government came up with a plan to quench their thirst.