{"id":20028499,"date":"2019-11-21T13:41:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T08:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=28499"},"modified":"2020-12-17T00:46:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T19:16:55","slug":"water-crisis-thimphu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/water\/water-crisis-thimphu\/","title":{"rendered":"Thirsty Thimphu in water abundant Bhutan"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is water, water everywhere in Bhutan, but lack of access to clean water remains one of the most pressing issues in the capital city of Thimphu.<\/p>\n

According to the National Environment Commission\u2019s (NEC) 2018 Water Security Index, 77.5% of urban households in the Thimphu region have potable water supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became mayor in 2011 and water used to be a serious problem,\u201d Thimphu mayor Kinlay Dorjee said. \u201cIt used to be (supplied) once a day for two to three hours for a whole building. People used to hire their own tankers to collect water. We have started looking at bigger projects to harness water supply from the main river,\u201d which is called the Wang Chhu in Bhutan, and Raidak in West Bengal and Bangladesh downstream.<\/p>\n

Bhutan\u2019s 12th five year plan aims to have 24\/7 water supply across the country by 2023. Rapid rural-urban migration, management issues and inadequate infrastructure has made that difficult in Thimphu.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we have enough water,\u201d Dorjee said. \u201cBut the dry season is yet to come. In January through March, we will see [if this source is adequate].\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming from the north at Tangocheri where the river has three tributaries, there is now a capacity to supply 10 million litres a day. This is part of a plan for the next 30 years, Dorjee said. \u201cNow we have almost solved the problem. We used to get so many complaints from the big hotels, but recently, we haven\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Future projects include water treatment plants, water lines from the source, distribution lines to residents and higher-quality treated water supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the city grows, there must be enough water resources,\u201d Dorjee said. \u201cEnough investment has not been done in the right areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rooftop tanks in Thimphu a daily necessity<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the water does flow, most Thimphu residents store it in rooftop tanks, as elsewhere in South Asia.<\/p>\n

\"Water
Water tanks on the top floor of a building in northern Thimphu [image by: Yuexuan Chen]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cIf you look at the services of the Thimphu municipality, they provide two to three hours in the morning and then one to two hours in the afternoon and then again in the evening,\u201d former executive director of the Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN) Lam Dorji said. \u201cOther times, they are not supplying because the treatment at the source is not enough to provide 24\/7. We cope with the availability. You just defer your water related work to a time when there\u2019s water.\u201d Dorji is currently a consultant and CEO of Centre for Environment and Development<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a water problem where I live,\u201d North Thimphu resident Namgyel Wangdi said. \u201cBut if we didn\u2019t have our own water tanks, I think we would have a shortage.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, in the capital of a water-abundant country, residents have to spend money buying storage tanks and sometimes buying water from private suppliers. Just as in far more arid parts of South Asia, the private suppliers pump water from whatever source they can find, fill a tanker, attach it to a tractor and bring the water home, all for a hefty price.<\/p>\n

Lam Dorji suggested that this money would be better used if it was available to the municipality to add scale and reliability to the existing infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our objective is people need not store,\u201d he said. \u201cJust open the tap and water should be available. If you consider that kind of service [to define 24\/7], then I would say there is a water shortage in Thimphu.\u201d<\/p>\n

The municipality isn\u2019t able to cater to the needs of the suburbs, so people are trying to find their own sources of water. \u201cYou\u2019ll see some urban residents in some places where they source water by taking their own pipe deep into the forest,\u201d Lam Dorji said.<\/p>\n

The mayor, Kinlay Dorjee, said the municipality is waiting for a budget to upgrade the distribution network for a bigger pipeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a quality issue,\u201d he added. \u201cThere were waterborne diseases. In one area, 20-30 people got sick, which should not happen.\u201d The problem is that residents not connected to the distribution network rely on community water supplies that are not quality-controlled or tested, according to the mayor. Much of this exacerbated by Bhutan\u2019s building boom riding on robust economic growth.<\/p>\n

Read:<\/strong> Building boom chokes Thimphu drains<\/a><\/p>\n

Read:<\/strong> As Bhutan\u2019s economy grows, so does its waste problem<\/a><\/p>\n

He said the municipality tests the water before supplying it. But residents do not really trust the quality. \u201cWe have our own filters because we don\u2019t trust the quality of the municipality supply,\u201d Thimphu building owner Kinley Penjor said.<\/p>\n

Leaking sewage systems and inadequate drainage throughout the city contribute to water quality problems.<\/p>\n

Admitting this, the mayor said, \u201cRoughly 40% (of drains) are not connected to the city sewage system. By next March, 80-90% should be connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

By next March, the Southern Babesa treatment plant \u2013 with a capacity to treat 12 million litres of sewage per day \u2013 should be completed. According to mayor Dorjee, the idea is to ensure that the Wang Chhu river \u201ccan regain the quality of 20 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

That will need a better storm water drainage system as well. After rain, flooding in parts of Thimphu is common, despite much of the city being on hill slopes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, (fixing the drainage system) is also expensive and we don\u2019t have the funds to just spend like that,\u201d said Lam Dorji. \u201cUnder the Water Security Index, it\u2019s not necessary to have everything sorted out at once. You can always do things in a progressive manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wrong time wrong place<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Bhutan is water abundant, the water is not necessarily available at the right time or reaching the right places.<\/p>\n

\"Wang
Wang Chhu (River) and the Big Buddha in the distance, downtown Thimphu [image by: Yuexuan Chen]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cWe have a lot of rivers, but the main rivers are mostly used for hydropower,\u201d director of the National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology Karma Dupchu said.<\/p>\n

Most residents rely on small streams, and irrigation was traditionally based on gravity systems. Half of the land in Bhutan is on mountainous slopes \u2014 most of the water is down at the bottom of the valley while people live up on the slopes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have good gravity systems, but cities might have planned for smaller populations earlier,\u201d Dupchu said. \u201cAlthough the city has tried to pump water from good sources, they have not been able to meet needs because of issues with distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if the overall supply issue is solved, residents still won\u2019t have 24\/7 access if the small pipelines can\u2019t handle that volume of water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis (central) part of the city has small pipelines from the 1970s that are in bad conditions\u201d mayor Dorjee said. \u201cThese eight square kilometres are the oldest part of the city. It has major issues and we are looking seriously at the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Water losses are hard to trace because the pipes are underground. \u201cIn the middle of a road, pipelines break and open up, and then we fix the water line,\u201d Dorjee said.<\/p>\n

The city aims to minimise losses which is 30-40% now. The goal is to limit the losses to 5-10%, the same as in developed countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for the urgency of the issue itself, we\u2019re not doing that bad,\u201d Lam Dorji said. \u201cWe\u2019re just aspiring to have water when you open your tap. It doesn\u2019t mean people don\u2019t have water. The urgency is more about harnessing opportunities as a Least Developed Country (LDC).\u201d<\/p>\n

As long as it is an LDC, Bhutan has access to low-interest loans and more foreign aid. The country is on course to move out of this category by 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current 12th five year plan allocated enough resources \u2014 four to five billion Ngultrum (USD 55.7-69.6 million),\u201d mayor Dorjee said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that with this money, we can do balanced works so that when we graduate (out of the LDDC category), we will already be done (with these projects).\u201d<\/p>\n

Climate impacts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thimphu\u2019s uphill source has enough water for eight months of the year. But during the winter, the water goes down to half the volume as the water level falls, and pipes freeze. This results in a huge crisis, the mayor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with water in Bhutan is too much and too little depending on the season,\u201d Chief Environment Officer in the Climate Change Division of the National Environment Commission (NEC), Thinley Namgyal agreed. \u201cThere are flash floods in the summer and the winter is getting drier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Water
2018 Thimphu Dzongkhag report from the Wangchhu Water Security Index System and National Environment Commission, *no data was collected on flooding<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Innovative mechanisms of storing water from the summer monsoons for the dry winters are needed. Pema Wangdue, Chief of watershed management plans at the NGO Bhutan for Life, said that feasibility studies for the Semtokha area in southern Thimphu were carried out to analyse water sources for monsoon assessment, looking at protecting water sources and providing incentives and monitoring mechanisms for benefits upstream and downstream. Nor is the problem isolated to just Thimphu.<\/p>\n

Read:<\/strong> Bhutan struggles with local water shortages<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of rain, but the rainwater is already down in the Bay of Bengal in the off season,\u201d Lam Dorji said. \u201cNo one big dam is going to serve the purpose of this country. If we have a big dam in Paro, it\u2019s not going to help Thimphu because our infrastructure isn\u2019t built the same as in the plains.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past, sufficient snowfall in and around the city could cater to needs in the winter. Not any more. One climate change impact Bhutan is facing right now is less snowfall in Thimphu. Apart from that, time series monitoring has shown that every year, glaciers in the Himalayas are receding.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the Wang Chhu Water Security Index<\/a> was launched to provide an online database that monitors five key dimensions of water security: rural, urban, economic, environmental and disaster\/climate change resilience. The programme is new; accuracy will need to improve over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cData will tell us where the water is and where it needs to be,\u201d Namgyal of NEC said. \u201cAt the moment, it\u2019s quite difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the support of the Asian Development Bank, the Bhutan National Integrated Water Resources Management Plan was created. Instead of every sector optimising for utility purposes only, the plan looks at managing water as a whole, from drinking water to irrigation to watershed preservation. The NEC has been tasked to implement it. The results remain to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authorities are struggling to meet the water needs of the fast growing capital, Thimpu, especially in the winter when there is little rain or snow and pipes freeze over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2194,"featured_media":20038130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50039903],"tags":[50040316,50040328,607],"hashtags":[],"country":[20027489],"class_list":["post-20028499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-water","tag-drinking-water","tag-water-quality","tag-water-scarcity","country-bhutan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThirsty Thimphu in water abundant Bhutan | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Authorities are struggling to meet the water needs of Bhutan's fast growing capital, Thimphu, especially in the winter.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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