NWSC to make delivery more efficient

Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC) has unveiled some new policies and programs on Wednesday hoping the change will make its service delivery more efficient.

Addressing a press meet in the capital, board chairman of the corporation Dr Laxmi Prasad Devkota said, "Lack of water is not the only problem. Supplying water at odd hours with no prior information to consumers is also a problem, and this can be sorted out."

"People are compelled to queue up in front of water taps for hours even at midnight due to lack of effective communication system in the corporation," he said.

According to the NWSC, it is going to publish notices informing people about the water supply schedule.

As part of its strategy to address consumers' complaints, NWSC is also going to operate a mobile lab to study the quality of water being supplied to people and to make them aware of the quality.

Likewise, the corporation has formed 12 sub-committees to work in a variety of sectors. Identifying resources and development; leakage detection and prevention; identification of drought area and management of distribution; metering and meter reading; monitoring; sanitation; due recovery; purchase; energy audit against misuse (telephone, vehicles etc); recruitment; employees promotion; and research and training are sectors in which the corporation has started work.

NWSC aims to distribute water for at least one hour every day to valley dwellers within a year by making optimum use of internal sources.

Talking about NWSC’s huge losses and outstanding bills Devkota informed, "The corporation is currently facing a loss of 230 million rupees, while we have outstanding bills of one billion rupees to recover."

According to Devkota, with a view to gear up recovery of dues, the corporation is going to blacklist big defaulters and put their names on its website.

In the meanwhile, agitating employees at NWSC have been staging protests against its management for allegedly 'firing' 255 workers.

On Wednesday, as the agitator tried to padlock the gate of the corporation's central office, police beat up 65 protestors. All of them returned home after general treatment by Wednesday evening, sources said.

Issuing a statement, the Inter Corporation Employees Association of Nepal criticized police high-handedness. It also said that the protests would continue until their demands were met.