Kathmandu - Growing differences between the donor agencies
and a Nepalese Maoist minister have prompted the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) to pull out of a major drinking water project, local media
reported Thursday.
The ABD's headquarters in the Philippines, in an email message to
the Nepalese finance ministry, said it would no longer fund the
multi-million-dollar Melamchi Drinking Water project, the influential
Nepali language Kantipur daily said.
The completion of the project would have provided much needed
drinking water to the water-starved Kathmandu Valley.
The case was followed closely in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu as
it would set a precedent in which Maoist influence might be measured
in such sensitive issues as privatization of public utilities.
The difference surfaced between Maoist minister for local
development Hishila Yemi and the ADB over the awarding of a contract
to distribute drinking water in the Kathmandu Valley.
Yemi, who has publicly expressed reservations over handing over
the management to a private foreign firm, said she would reconsider
the earlier government decision to award the contract to a British
firm, Severn Trents Plc.
Under the ADB terms, the contract should have been awarded on
Monday.
The newspaper quoted the minister as saying she remained unmoved
by the latest ADB pullout and that the country faced far more
pressing challenges than constructing a drinking water system.
The ADB is a major partner in the 450-million-dollar project. In
2005, two other major donors, Norway and Denmark, pulled out citing
various reasons including delays in construction and insecurity.
The ADB had assured the Nepalese government to fund 140 million
dollars and the pullout means the project could be shelved.
The Melamchi Drinking Water Project, situated just east of the
Nepalese capital, was set up to provide 170 million liters of water
to the three cities in the Kathmandu Valley.
The Nepalese capital currently requires about 240 million liters
of drinking water but the supply falls far short of the demand - just
90 million liters of water a day.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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