Background

Drinking water quality has direct impact on human health. In Nepal, an estimated 15000 children die each year due to diarroheal diseases, caused by poor environmental sanitation and lack of access to quality water supply. One of out every eight Nepalese children still dies by the age of five. A large number of adult population loose significant working days due to sickness related to water or water borne diseases. A variety of impurities occurring in the drinking water cause these diseases. The drinking water must be free from all such impurities or the impurities must be brought down to acceptable level through appropriate means of treatment before human consumption.

There is still no systematic water quality monitoring and surveillance program is in place nationwide. Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC), which operates, maintains and develops water supply system in 24 cities and towns, including municipalities in Kathmandu valley, have a fully equipped water quality-testing laboratory only in Kathmandu. The Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS), the lead agency is responsible for developing water supply services in rural areas and a few municipalities and towns. DWSS has attempted to establish a water quality testing and monitoring system in place for a number of years with the assistance of donor agencies such as WHO, UNICEF and ADB. However, it has not been successful in establishing sustainable water quality surveillance and monitoring system. The reasons for this have been the following: 1) Low priority for the improvement of water quality against the water supply coverage, 2) Poor infrastructure facilities available, 3) Lack of systematic approach in the implementation of water quality testing and monitoring and surveillance program 4) Poorly coordinated program implementation and 5) Absence of a national drinking water quality standard until

Considering all the above facts DWSS has established Water Quality Improvement and Monitoring Section (WQIMS) to give equal importance in quality aspect of drinking water. Water quality Improvement and Monitoring section is dealing with the water quality issues for the improvement of drinking water quality all over the country through the division and sub-division offices in districts. It is conducting health surveys, surveillance of water borne diseases, monitoring of water quality, survey design and construction of water quality improvement projects. The current other major activities are the Arsenic testing and Implementation of mitigation options in terai districts.

The drinking water service has been categorized into three different levels, viz., high, medium and basic employing indicators like water quality, quantity, accessibility, supply period and reliability. In 10th plan it is also indicated that by the end of 2007, 5% more population (1.334 million people) will be provided with high level drinking water and 10% (2.338 million people) will be provided with medium level drinking water by upgrading the drinking water supply system. The long-term vision is to assure drinking water and sanitation facilities in accordance with the 20 year perspective plan. According to this plan, as high as 25% population will be provided with high-level service and medium level service to 60%, while basic level service will be made available to 15% population.

Water quality Improvement and Monitoring section is dealing with the water quality issues for the improvement of water quality all over the country to meet the Nepal Governments' target in the sector of water quality. It is conducting health surveys, surveillance of water borne diseases and monitoring of water quality. The current other major activities are the Arsenic testing and Implementation of mitigation options in terai districts.

The main functions of the section:

1. Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance
2. Survey and design of Treatment Plants,
3. Construction of Treatment Plants
4. Arsenic Testing
5. Arsenic Mitigation
6. Research and Development/ Development of manual, guidelines etc
7. Others

1) Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance

Surveillance is carried out in routine basis for different projects. The five key indicators of the surveillance program of Drinking Water Supply Services are coverage, quantity, continuity, quality and cost. Among these Quality is the main concern and the activities which are carried are:
- Analysis for faecal indicator organisms (thermotolerant or faecal coliform)
- Sanitary inspection of the system to investigate the risk of contamination.
Monitoring is done in regular basis for ongoing program.

2) Survey and Design of Water Quality improvement Projects

To assess the quality of the supplied water this section conducts the survey and design of the existing Water Supply systems to implement the Water quality Improvement Programs. This section has completed the survey and design of 55 different water quality improvement projects (35 number feasibility study and 20 number detailed survey and design) to upgrade the water quality of the existing system. The list of the project is given in annex I.

3) Treatment Plants Construction

To improve the Water Quality of the Existing System of the supplied water, this section facilitaties the different districts for the construction of treatment plants to improve the quality of drinking water. Until the end of the fiscal year 063/64, seven number of Water Quality Improvement Project has been completed and 11 are under construction in different districts. The name of the project, benefited population and the coverage area along with type of treatment system is given in annex II.

The number of population served with quality water from the completed project so far is 1,12,128 and the total population that will be benefited from the ongoing project is 152246 .

4) Blanket Arsenic Testing Program

Arsenic in drinking Water is an emerging issue for Nepal. It is estimated that there are around 1050,000 tubewells in 20 Terai districts of Nepal. To obtain the clear picture of the Arsenic Contamination, Blanket Arsenic Testing Program has been conducted in the Arsenic affected terai districts. This program is running in co-ordination with NASC and with the assistance of UNICEF, WHO and other organizations. It has been completed in 13 Terai districts namely Kanchanpur, Kailali, Kapilbastu, Rupandehi, Nawalparasi, Parsa, Bara, Dhanusa, Siraha, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Saptari and Sunsari. Now, the Blanket Arsenic testing is going in Banke district. The total number of tube wells tested for so far is about 737000. Among these tests DWSS has completed 670000 . The test results along with GPS location is being compiled and kept by the National Arsenic Steering Committee (NASC) and the Water Quality Improvement and Monitoring section (DWSS). The Summary of blanket testing and Concentration of Arsenic in different districts has been annexed in annex III. and analysis of test result of initially completed eight district has been attached in annex IV.

National Arsenic Steering Committee (NASC)

To coordinate and streamline all the activities related to arsenic of different agencies under one umbrella the "National Arsenic Steering Committee" has been formed in 1999 under the chairmanship of the chief of Water Supply and Sanitation Division (Joint Secretary) of Ministry of Physical planning and Works (MPPW) with 19 members representing different governmental and non-governmental agencies working in the field of water, sanitation and health sector. The secretariat of NASC is at DWSS and WQIMS of DWSS keeps all the data and other relevant information on Arsenic issues. UNICEF, WHO, UN Habitat and other agencies are supporting for Blanket arsenic testing program.

The meeting of NASC is regularly conducted and the decisions are made regarding different aspects of arsenic related issues to run the program smoothly. The Interim policy of NASC has been attached in annex V.
5) Arsenic Mitigation activities

Many communities has been identified as the Arsenic affected areas and subsequently arsenic mitigation work has been carried out in some effected areas and proposed for other places. Concentrated effort has been made to find out the performance of the existing household level Arsenic Removal units. In this program two hundred new tube wells have been installed in different districts. Also around 1500 bio-sand filters have been installed and around 3000 extra bio-sand filters have been distributed in different terai districts. The installation is going on with the support of UNICEF and Nepal Red Cross Society. In addition, three Arsenic removal plants have been installed in the effected areas of Terai district through this section. Extension of new pipeline to the arsenic affected areas from the water supply system having low or no arsenic has been adopted as an alternate option in different areas. The other suggested alternate source of drinking water such as deep well with overhead tank, rainwater collection and others can be constructed under the mitigation activities.

6) Research and Development:

• Research on Sodis (UNICEF/WHO)
  – Good results in hilly area
  – Simple to use and cheap option
• Research by students (8 nos of students from different institutions)
• Design and Supply of locally constructed Field testing Kit (AAN Nepali Version)
• Performance evaluation of Three Gagri-filter in Nepal
• Geological study to find primary source of Arsenic
  – Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance in five districts (WHO/GoN)
  (Baglung, Syangja, Palpa, Kathmandu, Lalitpur)
  – Development of Data Base (Kavre and Kaski)
  – Other research activities related to water quality (Microbial, effluent from factories etc)
• Preparation of national drinking water Standards

Nepal Government approved the National Drinking Water Quality Standard in 2006 and it has made mandatory to improve the quality of water of all the supplied water within the ten years of implementation of NDWQS in phase wise manner. The implementation modality has been explained below.

Implementation of National Drinking Water Quality Standard

(1) First Phase of Implementation: It will be implemented in the following projects
and providers within five years of approval of NDWQS.
a) Applicable to all existing urban water supply projects as well as small town water supply projects catering to more than 10,000 populations.
b) All other new urban water supply projects which will be implemented after approval of NDWQS
c) Applicable to all new and existing urban water supply projects having high risk of water related diseases even though the population less than 10,000
d) Urban water Supply Providers, Private Industries and Agencies related with Health Services

(2) Second Phase of Implementation: The second phase will be implemented after
5 years and within 10 years of approval of NDWQS

a) In all Water Supply Systems in district head quarter within initial three years of the second phase
b) All community water supply systems within five years of the start of second phase
c) The parameters of NDWQS for water supply system under 2 (b) will be as per .

The approved copy of "National Drinking Water Quality Standard, 2064" and "National Drinking Water Quality Standard Implementation Guideline, 2062" has been annexed in annex VI and annex VII respectively

7) Others

a) Provision of Disinfectant -
To control the outbreak of epidemic due to microbiological contamination especially in rainy season, sufficient quality of bleaching powder has been made available to districts through Regional offices.

b) WHO Assisted Program

With the assistance of WHO this section has conducted various programs on Water Quality Improvement and awareness creation for it. The programs, which are currently in progress, are:
Application of Water safety Plan - It is a framework for drinking-water safety and stresses the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders. The main tools for WSP are HACCP and ISO 9001. The main objective of WSP is to incorporate the plans for effective management of water quality at community levels.

In our country, DWSS has initiated implementation of Water Safety Plan in community Water Supply System. The program has been completed in Mahadevsthan Water Supply Project of Kathamandu district and Sabaithuwa Water Supply of Parsauni Birta VDC in Parsa district with the assistance of WHO for the first time. In this connection DWSS and WHO also jointly organized a one and a half day workshop for the presentation and discussion on National Drinking Water Quality Standard also to inform the stakeholders on the new edition of WHO Guideline in particular to the potential of “Water Safety Plans” in management and control of water quality. The output of the implemented program, lesson learnt, barriers felt were also presented and discussed in the workshop. The lesson learned made us to realize that we should implement the Water Safety Plan Program for the quality assurance in Water Supply Systems. The Water Safety Plan program has been incorporated in the current fiscal year regular program and will be implemented in other four water supply systems.

Point of Use Disinfection Programme - A program on promotion of point of use water disinfection was conducted in ten communities of five different districts namely Kathmandu(Mahadevstan & Tinthan) Bhakpur( Duwakot Jhaukhel & Sirutar), Lalitpur (Imadol and Siddipur) Bara(Telkuwa, Pureniya 2, Kanchanpur) and Parsa (Bagahi, Parsaunibirta) . The main objective of the program was to create awareness creation amongst the selected rural and urban communities on the importance of bacteriological quality of water and recommendation of some of the suitable house hold level disinfection techniques. The program has proved very fruitful in creating awareness among the rural communities.