Three foreign water management experts have undertaken the responsibility of supplying drinking water to the Kathmandu valley from this week. Last week, Kathmandu Valley Drinking Water Limited appointed a General Manager and two Managing Directors on the recommendation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the chief contributor of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project. The team will be working for one-and-a-half years. ADB is set to provide all the necessary expenses for the project through technical assistance, while a new management team will be appointed after the expiry of the experts' tenure. As per the decision, British citizen Richard Austin has been appointed as the Director General of , Kathmandu Valley Drinking Water Limited whereas German citizen Josheph and another Briton Kelvin Palmar have been appointed as technical manager and finance manager respectively to assist Austin. The three foreign experts have started their work after assuming their positions from this week, Kathmandu Valley Drinking Water Limited assistant general Managar Gyaneshnanda Bajracharya informed. Bajracharya added that the newly appointed specialists, who will be improving the water supply system, and will formulate and implement new strategies, will be supported by other Kathmandu Valley Drinking Water Limited office bearers. The government, last year, set up the limited and handed over the work that was being carried out by state-owned Nepal Drinking Water Supply Corporation (NDWSC), to the limited this year. NDWSC's responsibility to supply water is confined to places outside Kathmandu valley. Among the total 450 million capital of the Kathmandu Valley Drinking Water Limited, 30 percent shares belong to the government, 20 percent to Kathmandu Metropolitan City, 10 percent to Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City, 10 percent to Federation of Industry of Commerce and Chamber of Commerce, 10 percent to Thimi, Kirtipur and Bhaktapur municipalities and 5 percent to Kathmandu Valley Drinking Water Limited staff. In a bid to avoid political influence in the water management and to operate the water management as per entrepreneurial values, the ADB had set preconditions. Before the Maoists joined the government, the then government had decided to handover the management contract to the Severn Trent Water International, a British company, to fulfill the conditions of the ADB. The government and the ADB had reached an agreement to mobilise foreign experts for valley water management after the Minister for Physical planning and Re-construction scrapped the contract with Severn Trent. As per the agreement, the three experts will carry out the work untill the water management is handed to the private sector by the government. The government has to appoint the private sector within 18 months through the process of a global tender. ADB has provided a loan of 137 million US dollars (Rs 8.63 billion) for the Melamchi drinking water project. According to Bajracharya, the ADB has provided some amount in assistance on the condition that the supply system should be managed at the earliest. Posted on: 2008-04-27 08:11:41 (Server Time)