Today, Melamchi will not be closed; instead, water will be sent cautiously.

Kathmandu – The Melamchi Drinking Water Project, located in Ambathan, Sindhupalchok, has decided not to close its main gate yet. Despite preparations to halt the project from today, the committee will continue to send water to the distribution areas cautiously, as the water from the Melamchi River has not yet subsided, the executive director of the Melamchi Drinking Water Development Committee, Ratna Lamichhane, stated.

“With the monsoon active in Bagmati Province, the government had prepared to halt the project to prevent monsoon-related disasters. The decision to halt the project was announced on May 31 last year. Since the river did not dry up until then, the project has been operated continuously,” Lamichhane said.

“When the monsoon is active in Bagmati Province and there is a possibility of increased water flow in the Melamchi River and potential damage to the project, we were prepared to close the main gate starting today,” he said. “The current situation shows that there has been no increase in water flow in the river and the river is also clean. Therefore, we are cautiously continuing to send water to the distribution areas as the situation requiring an immediate shutdown has not been seen.”

According to Lamichhane, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has suggested halting the Melamchi Project to mitigate monsoon-related risks from time to time. “Although we have prepared several times to close Melamchi, we have been operating it so far,” he said. “We will not be sure when to shut down the project and the risk of increased danger due to heavy rainfall. We will close it immediately.”

The committee has prepared to start sending Melamchi’s water only when the risk of disaster during the monsoon period is reduced. Lamichhane said that only when the monsoon subsides, the residents of the downstream will again find water from Melamchi.

The government has been preparing to minimize the potential damage from possible risks of disaster due to monsoon to the Melamchi Project in the watershed. It has been planned to close the water and open it after the rain. According to the Department of Water and Weather Science, the monsoon in Nepal started on June 13 this year. The monsoon will be out of sight on October 2.

The department has informed that the monsoon has spread across the country except Karnali and Far West Pradesh.