Delayed drainage - Unavailability of sewerage pipes, last year ‘s heavy monsoon and lack of manpower

24 July, 2008 - Stagnant waters fill the trenches dug all over town and pipes lie along the roadside. Gelephu’s modern sewerage system, aimed at improving hygiene and sanitation and controlling mosquitoes in summer, is now helping to breed mosquitoes.

Such a situation may not have arisen had the sewerage system, the construction of which began two years ago, was completed on time.

It was supposed to have been completed on February 4 this year but got delayed because of the unavailability of sewerage pipes, the heavy monsoon last year and lack of manpower, according to Gelephu municipal officials. The deadline was extended to June 4, but this time the unavailability of the master pipe is the cause of delay. “With all 251 manhole trenches complete, almost 90 percent of the work is done,” said the municipal officer-in-charge, Chopel Dorji. “The municipality is waiting for the contractor to acquire the required pipes from China as it was not available in the Indian market.”

“The only hitch was the pipe quality,” the municipal engineer told Kuensel. He explained that a big pipe was needed for the Nimalung dratshang to the vegetable market area so that it could also meet future needs.

The municipal office specified a 1.6 km long pipe, 450 to 500 mm in diameter, fitted by a rubber ring joint and a wall thickness of six kilogramme pressure per centimeter. However, the contractor could not acquire it as the exact specification was not available in India. “The contractor wanted to compromise on the specification of the pipe,” Chopel Dorji told Kuensel, adding that the City had to deny the compromise in writing.

Chinese companies did not have ready-made sewerage pipes of the required specifications. But a Chinese company, on negotiation with the contractor, agreed to supply the pipe in accordance to the client’s specification.

However, Thinley Gyeltshen of Gaseb construction, which is doing the sewerage project, told Kuensel that he would not be in a position to import the specified pipe from China as there was a huge cost difference. “It’s almost Nu 2.3 million and I won’t be able to absorb it as I didn’t include that in my tender,” he told Kuensel by telephone.

Thinley Gyeltshen told Kuensel that, although he was corresponding with Chinese manufacturers, he would take the issue to the ministry to reconsider the specification.

Meanwhile, Gelephu residents are not only concerned about the delay but also with the cost of getting connected to the network. Gelephu residents will have to bear the cost of connecting their private houses to the main sewer line, unlike Thimphu and Phuentsholing residents where the connection was done free.

Municipal officials said that the present rate was Nu 3,000 a household, in accordance with the water and sanitation rule introduced in 1998 but it could get revised any time.

House-owners told Kuensel that, though the idea of the sewer network was good, the execution of the project was poor.

In the first phase of the DANIDA-funded project, Nu 26 million was being spent to lay a network of underground sewer lines in the core area of the town to connect 350 households to the sewer network.

A total of 251 manhole trenches have been dug right across the heart of town. Gelephu town is spread over an area of eight square.

kilometres and has about 900 households.

The sewer network will flow into a Nu 34 million treatment plant, that is being constructed below the vegetable market, about 400 metres from the Indo-Bhutan border.