Kathmandu's Water Supply: Scarcity in Abundance

With 6,000 rivers from the Himalayas and 59.3 trillion gallons of runoff every year, Nepal is one of the wealthiest countries in terms of freshwater resources (Shukla et al.). It ranks 60th on the list of most available freshwater resources in the world. It has almost 7.4 million liters per capita freshwater availability .

Only 70% of households in Kathmandu valley are connected to the municipal water supply. The average households receive 1.5 hours of water supply once in every five days from the public utility. Most of the public are forced to purchase bottled or jarred drinking water from private companies at a high cost due to low quality tap water. About 15% of people depend on water tankers that supply water privately.