96% population in Karnali deprived of pure drinking water

KARNALI, MARCH 23: As high as 96 percent of the total population in Karnali Province is deprived of access to safe and pure drinking water. As per the preliminary result of the National Census-2078 BS, just four percent of the total 1,694,889 population in the province has an access to pure drinking water. Senior Divisional Engineer at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Gopal Sharma said that 86 percent of the people in the province are provided with basic supplies of drinking water while six percent of the people still have no access to basic drinking water supply.

According to Sharma, most of the dwellers from the province are forced to drink impure water from open ponds, rivers, rivulets, and streams. "The ministry is working with the target to supply basic water facility in all 79 local levels," he added. In the current fiscal year, the provincial government has allocated Rs 1.40 billion under the heading of drinking water and sanitation. Likewise, water testing labs have been established in all 10 districts in Karnali, while new projects for water supplies are being implemented at the local and provincial levels.

RSS