HOUSEHOLD WATER USE IN THE
KATHMANDU VALLEY:
A DRY SEASON SURVEY

WASH-MIA Rapid ReportWASH-MIA Rapid Report

HOUSEHOLD WATER USE IN THE
KATHMANDU VALLEY:
A DRY SEASON SURVEY

Authors
Sadhana Shrestha, Yoko Aihara, Naoki Kondo, Sudarshan Rajbhandari, Arun P. Bhattarai,
Niranjan Bista, Futaba Kazama, Kei Nishida, Hari P. Timilsina, Junko ShindoInterdisciplinary Center for River Basin Environment (ICRE)
University of Yamanashi
November, 2016

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Household water use in the Kathmandu Valley: A dry season survey

Interdisciplinary Center for River Basin Environment (ICRE)
University of Yamanashi
4-3-11 Takeda, Kofu, Yamanashi 400-8511 Japan
WWW: http://www.icre.yamanashi.ac.jp
Tel: + 81 – 55 – 220 - 6869
© 2016 Interdisciplinary Center for River Basin Environment, All rights reserved

Citation:
Sadhana Shrestha, Yoko Aihara, Naoki Kondo, Sudarshan Rajbhandari, Arun P. Bhattarai,
Niranjan Bista, Futaba Kazama, Kei Nishida, Hari P. Timilsina, Junko Shindo. 2016. Householdwater use in the Kathmandu Valley: A dry season survey, WASH-MIA Rapid Report,
Interdisciplinary Center for River Basin Environment (ICRE), University Yamanashi, Yamanashi,
Japan.

Corresponding email:shrestha@yamanashi.ac.jp
gosadhana@gmail.com

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Preface
Kathmandu Valley has been facing chronic insecurity of domestic water that is one of the inevitable
resources for people’s daily life. It is known that water supply from the public sector is much lessthan the demand due to increasing population in the Valley and people have to rely on water fromother sources such as well, spring as well as purchased water. Water is sometimes low quality.
Such water situation may have been causing harmful effect on physical and psychological healthof people and also impeding their daily social and economic activities.
A SATREPS (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development) project“Hydro-microbial approach for water security in Kathmandu Valley” (Project manager: Futaba
Kazama, University of Yamanashi and Narendra Man Shakya, Tribhuvan University) jointly
funded by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA) has launched in 2014. Objectives of this project are to create water insecurity mapsof the valley in terms of water scarcity and chemical and microbial contamination and to develop
and provide water treatment systems in some water insecure areas based on the maps. Our group,social and economic evaluation group, of the project conducted a wide scale household survey onwater related issues in household. The data are being used in the project as a basis for evaluatingwater insecurity and for clarifying social and economic issues caused by the water insecurity.
The survey was conducted before the Gorkha Earthquake and similar surveys have been ongoingafter the earthquake both in dry and wet seasons. This report shows the summary of the results ofthe first survey mainly on the present situation of water source, availability, handling in households,
cost etc., and the results of the following surveys will be published sequentially. The data in thecurrent issue would be useful to understand the water problems in the Kathmandu Valley justbefore the earthquake.

Prof. Junko ShindoSocial and economic evaluation group
SATREPS “Hydro-microbial approach for water security in Kathmandu Valley” Project4
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Acronyms and abbreviation
ADB

Asian Development Bank

APWF

Asia-Pacific Water ForumCBS

Central Bureau of Statistics

GEQ

Gorkha Earthquake

HH

Household

JICA

Japan International Cooperation Agency

JST

Japan Science and Technology Agency

KMC

Kathmandu Metropolitan City

KrM

Kritipur Municipality

KUKL

Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited

LPCD

Liter per capita per day

LSMC

Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan city

MDG

Millennium Development Goal

MLD

Million liters per day

NRs

Nepali Rupees

PPS

Proability Proportional to household sizeTMThimi Municipality

UN

United Nations

UNICEF

United Nations Children’s FundUY

University of Yamanashi

WHO

World Health Organization

WTP

Willingness to pay

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Acknowledgement
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
and Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) for funding the project. We respect the timely
help and support from group leaders of all working groups under this project; Prof. Narendra M.
Shakya, Dr. Hiroshi Ishidaira, Prof. Suresh D. Shrestha, Dr. Takashi Nakamura, Dr. Ishwor M.
Amatya, Dr. Tadashi Toyama, Prof. Jeevan B. Sherchand and Dr. Eiji Haramoto. We are highly
indebt to the interviewers whose effort in negotiating and pursuing the local people to participate
in the survey. We also are thankful to the Japanese and international students of University of
Yamanashi who helped to bring the questionnaires back to Japan. We are also very much gratefulto Mr. Sudeep Hada and Dr. Vishnu P. Pandey for their endless support, suggestions andparticipation in the initial phase of the survey. Lastly, we appreciate the participants for providing
their valuable time and information and also appreciate their commitment to engage in this study
in the remaining surveys and follow-up studies.

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Summary
An imbalance between high water demand and low supply in the Kathmandu Valley has createdwater insecurity. This situation has hit households hard with increased stress for water management,
increased cost, loss of time and other uncountable problems. Households approach multiple water
sources in addition to municipal water (piped water) to fulfill their water needs. However, such‘private self-supply’ often excluded from official statistics and is usually taken as granted bygovernment. Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2009 conducted wide scale survey about water
use in the valley but the main aims were to establish the baseline of Kathmandu Upatyaka
Khanepani Limited (KUKL) services and to propose indicators for future performance monitoringfor KUKL rather than to understand dynamics of household water use. In addition, within the spanof 5 years, household KUKL connections have been increased by thousands but the supply isstagnant. Hence, we strongly believe that the current scenario has been changed a lot from what
had been presented by ADB (2010). Hence, our objective was to reveal current situation ofhousehold water dynamics including use and purpose of multiple water sources, per capita water
consumption, monthly cost spent on water etc. These information will be helpful for several
researchers as well as for different stake holders.
The survey was conducted in Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), Lalitpur Submetropolitan City (LSMC), Kritipur municipality (KrM) and Thimi municipality (TM) during
January to March 2015. For easiness to report the results, we have divided it into Kathmandu
district (KMC and KrM), Lalitpur disctrict (LSMC) and Bhaktapur district (TM). This was a multistage cluster survey with probability proportional to household size sampling technique. 39
clusters were then selected and around each cluster 30 households were surveyed. A structured
questionnaire was used which included questions about socio-demographic characteristics,
domestic water use behavior, water quality management, hygiene behavior, expenditure on waterand physical symptoms. Total 1139 households were interviewed. Since 9 interviewees were below
15 years of age, they were excluded for data analysis.
In this study, 80% of household lie in Kathmandu district, 7% in Bhaktpur and 13% in
Lalitpur district. Out of 1130 households, 657 (58%) were house owners and 694 (61%) were of
Janajati ethnicity. The mean age of the respondents was 40 years. 76% of the participants wereliterate. 66% of the households had private connection from KUKL (piped water) and 52% had
private well. 71% of households used jar water, 31% tanker water, 9% rainwater, and 3% stone
spout. 78% of households received piped water < 4 hours a week. 87% of household used pipedwater for cooking, 74% for drinking, 76% for bathing and 70% for laundry. Only 12% households
used groundwater for drinking and 22% for cooking. Groundwater was mainly being used forbathing (87%) and laundry (94%). 100% of jar water using households use it for drinking and 53%
use it for cooking purpose. 95% and 93% of tanker water using households used it for bathing andlaundry and less number of household used it for drinking and cooking. Surprisingly, none of thehouseholds in Bhaktapur used tanker water. None of the households could rely only on piped water,and 34% of households were relying on alternative water sources only. The average per capita
water consumption in liter (LPCD) was 121. The average monthly cost for piped water was NRs.
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267. The jar water using households were paying monthly NRs. 1145 only for jar water and thetanker water using households were paying NRs. 4029 monthly only for tanker water.
The results of this study showed that piped water was extremely insufficient for meetingthe daily water needs of the valley residents. Consequently, people are spending comparatively
large amount of money for buying jar water and tanker water to maintain LPCD at 121. Our study,
did not go in details regarding the cost of installation and maintenance of shallow groundwater
wells. But it is not difficult to speculate the economic burden for 52% of households in this study
which used groundwater. Almost all the households relied on alternative water sources, however
the water management stress could be larger to 34% of the households which did not use pipedwater because regardless of its performance piped water has been preferred for drinking andcooking and has been considered as a permanent water source. This study has revealed the water
dynamics of households in dry season. The availability and use of multiple sources can beinterpreted in terms of burden for water management and cost. Hence, future research focusing on
the scenario of water insecurity and the effect of water unavailability on people’s life can be aninteresting aspect to be explored.

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Contents
Acronyms and abbreviation
Acknowledgement
Summary
List of figure ................................................................................................................................. 10
List of tables .................................................................................................................................. 10
1.

Introduction .............................................................................................................................11

2.

Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 13
2.1 Study settings: ..................................................................................................................... 13
2.2 Study design: ....................................................................................................................... 13
2.3 Measurements:..................................................................................................................... 13

3. Results ....................................................................................................................................... 15
3.1. Socio-demographic characteristics of households ............................................................. 15
3.2 Water sources ....................................................................................................................... 19
3.2.1 Piped water.................................................................................................................... 20
3.2.2 Groundwater ................................................................................................................. 21
3.2.3 Jar water ........................................................................................................................ 21
3.2.4 Tanker water .................................................................................................................. 22
3.2.5 Combination of water sources in use ............................................................................ 23
3.3 Water use by house ownership ............................................................................................ 24
3.3 Monthly water cost and willingness to pay ......................................................................... 25
3.4 Water treatment practices .................................................................................................... 27
3.5 Sanitation and hygiene ........................................................................................................ 28
3.6 Health status ........................................................................................................................ 29
4 Conclusion and limitation .......................................................................................................... 30
References ..................................................................................................................................... 31

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List of figure
Figure 1. Distributions of survey locations in the Kathmandu Valley .......................................... 14
List of tables
Table1. Household composition.................................................................................................... 15
Table 2. Gender of respondents .................................................................................................... 15
Table 3. Number of households and family size ........................................................................... 15
Table 4. House ownership status of participants ........................................................................... 15
Table 5. Ethinicity of households.................................................................................................. 16
Table 6. Age (in years) of respondents .......................................................................................... 16
Table 7. Education of respondents ................................................................................................ 17
Table 8. Occupation ...................................................................................................................... 17
Table 9. Age of household head .................................................................................................... 17
Table 10. Education of household head ........................................................................................ 18
Table 11. Occupation of household head ...................................................................................... 18
Table 12. Household asset possessions ......................................................................................... 19
Table 13. Wealth status based on wealth index ............................................................................. 19
Table 14. Private water source possession .................................................................................... 20
Table 15. Different water sources in use ....................................................................................... 20
Table 16. Piped water supply hours per week............................................................................... 20
Table 17. Purpose of use of piped water ....................................................................................... 21
Table 18. Purpose of use of groundwater...................................................................................... 21
Table 19. Frequency of buying jar water ...................................................................................... 22
Table 20. Purpose of jar water use ................................................................................................ 22
Table 21. Frequency of tanker water buying per month ............................................................... 22
Table 22. Purpose of use of tanker water ...................................................................................... 23
Table 23. Combination of water sources in use ............................................................................ 23
Table 24. Water use per day per HH & per capita (Excluding spring and river water) ................ 24
Table 25. Different sources in use by owner and tenants.............................................................. 24
Table 26. Combination of water sources ....................................................................................... 25
Table 27. Water consumption per HH and per capita ................................................................... 25
Table 28. Monthly cost of piped water, jar water, tanker water and total water use ..................... 26
Table 29. Monthly water cost........................................................................................................ 26
Table 30. Willingness to pay for good quality water .................................................................... 27
Table 31. Treatment of water used for different purposes ............................................................ 27
Table 32. Different water treatment methodologies in practice .................................................... 28
Table 33. Wastewater management category ................................................................................ 28
Table 34. Frequency of cleaning water storage vessels ................................................................ 28
Table 35. Diarrhoea cases last two weeks ..................................................................................... 29
Table 36. Deworming in last 6 months ......................................................................................... 29

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Introduction

Many international organizations are separately or jointly putting effort to reduce water scarcity
that the developing parts of the world are facing. Focusing on Asia and Pacific, Asian Development
Bank (ADB) formulated and initiated ‘Water for All’ policy in 2001. Likewise, United Nations(UN) initiated several Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and one of them was to halve, by
2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic
sanitation (Goal 7 Target10 c). These efforts have resulted in 90% coverage of use of improved
drinking water sources in South Asia by 2010 which was 18% increment in the level in 1990.
However, the increments were basically made in other improved water sources rather than pipedwater.
In South Asia, 65% of population use other improved sources than pipe source (25%)(UNICEF/WHO 2012). According to report by ADB, the number of people with a tap in the house(23%) lags significantly behind the overall MDG figures for improved water supply (91%) in
South Asia (ADB/APWF 2013). Moreover, the data for piped water supply did not include durationof supply i.e. whether the supply is 24 hours a day and 7 days per week or intermittent supply(ADB/APWF 2013). According to a report on water in Asian cities published by ADB, the cities
in which none of the population had 24 hours piped water availability were Dhaka, Karachi andKathmandu whereas it was 1% and 60% in Delhi and Colombo respectively (Andrews & Yniguez
2004). These findings are clearly highlighting that in this region, water sources other than pipedwater constitute bigger proportion of household water.
The Kathmandu Valley being capital city is the most urbanized center of Nepal. The city
has seen extensive population growth which increased from 1.6 million in 2001 to 2.5 million by
2011 and the population growth rate of 5.2% was one the highest in South Asia (CBS 2012).
Rapidly grown population has water demand of 320 million liters per day (MLD) but the watersupplying agency could only provide 106 MLD and 76 MLD in wet and dry seasons, respectively(KUKL 2010). In order to provide water to all connections despite of huge water deficit, the agency
can supply water intermittently to the households. None of the municipal areas in the valley arereceiving piped water 24 hours supply per day while most of them were receiving <4 – 7 hours per
week (ADB 2010). Therefore, like in many Asian cities, alternative water sources constitute large
proportion of domestic water use in the valley.
Other improved sources consist of groundwater (tube well / protected bore well/ protected
dug well), protected spring and rain water while unimproved sources include unprotected dug well,vendor’s tanker water, unprotected spring water, bottled water, and surface water (WHO/UNICEF
2012). According to a wide scale survey conducted by ADB 2010, 52% of households use
groundwater, 10% use stone spout, 1% use river water, 27% use rainwater, 17% use bottled or jar,
8% use vendor’s tanker and 4% use other sources in the valley. Private self-supply is greatly
practiced by urban dwellers as ‘coping-strategy’ against partially or highly inadequate municipal
water supply (Foster et al. 2010). But, ‘private self-supply’ by households is often excluded fromofficial statistics and is usually taken as granted by government. In 2009, ADB had conducted awide scale survey about water supply status but within the period of 5 years after that survey KUKL11
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connections has been increased by thousands but the performance of KUKL is rather stagnant. Ina short span of time, water business has flourished tremendously. So, undoubtedly the compositionof water sources being used in households as well the coverage of different water sources might
have experienced a huge shift. Therefore, we felt an urgency to understand as well as to document
current household water use situation of the valley.
This study is a part of “Hydro-microbial approach for water security in Kathmandu Valley”
project of University of Yamanashi (UY) under the program “Science and Technology ResearchPartnership for Sustainable Development”, jointly funded by Japan Science and Technology
Agency (JST) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It aimed to ensure safe watersupply. One of the aims of this project was to understand different dynamics of household water
use based on a wide scale household survey in the valley in dry and wet seasons.

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2. Methodology
2.1 Study settings:
The survey was conducted in Kathmandu metropolitan city (KMC), Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan city
(LSMC), Kritipur municipality (KrM) and Thimi municipality (TM) from January to March, 2015.
KMC and KrM lie Kathmandu district and LSMC in Lalitpur district and TM in Bhaktapur district.
2.2 Study design:This is a multi-stage cluster survey which includes two steps to select samples. Firstly, 50 clusters
were selected using probability proportional to HH size (PPS) sampling technique. Here, wards in
KMC, LSMC, KrM and TM were considered as clusters. Secondly, 30 HHs were randomly
selected within each selected clusters. For second stage of selection, random geographical location
was chosen and 30 HHs closest to the location were selected. Only one household per house wassurveyed. The total number of clusters was curbed from 50 to 39 because of occurrence of GEQ
on 25th of April 2015. The total number of 1139 HHs were interviewed.
The inclusion criteria of the participants were being above 15 years of age, should be in
the state to give interview physically and mentally, and were willing to provide written informed
consent to participate in the study voluntarily. The trained interviewers conduct face to faceinterview with the participants.
2.3 Measurements:
A structured questionnaire was used and data was collected by trained interviewers. The
questionnaire included socio-demographic characteristics, domestic water use behavior, water
quality management, hygiene behavior and physical symptoms.
Domestic water use behavior
The questions in this heading included different sources of domestic water such as municipal
supplied piped water, groundwater, rainwater, jar water, private vendor’s tanker water and othersources, frequency of use, amount of used, storage, purpose of use and cost. Domestic water inthis study is defined as the water used for drinking, cooking, laundry, bathing, gardening, toilet,
cleaning within the HH by family members.
HygieneRegarding hygiene, participants were asked about their behaviour of washing hand before
preparing meal and after toilet, frequency of bathing and clearing water storage vessels.
Physical symptoms
We asked participants if they had any physical symptoms in last two weeks. The symptoms
included headache, fever, cold, vomiting, stomach ache, back-pain, trachoma, typhoid etc.

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Covariate variables
Socio-demographic characteristics included age, gender, literacy and occupation of all themembers of the household and ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Ethnicity was based on last
name of the participants which also indicates social hierarchy. Socio-economic status wasdetermined by constructing wealth index based on household asset possession such as mobile
phone, refrigerator, motorbike, vehicle, invertor etc. (Cordova A 2009).

Figure 1 Distributions of survey locations in the Kathmandu Valley

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3. Results
3.1. Socio-demographic characteristics of households
Nine HHs were excluded from the study since their age was below inclusion criteria (15 years).
The district wise composition of HHs were Kathmandu 80.2%, Bhaktapur 6.8% and Lalitpur 13%(Table 1). The proportion of gender of the respondents was also nearly equal (Table 2). Except in
Bhaktapur, most of the houses have two HHs and in all the districts the average family size wasfour (Table 3). Among our respondents, the percentage of owners were higher in Bhaktapur (77%)
whereas that was lower in Lalitpur (44%) (Table 4).
Table1. Household composition
Districtn%

Kathmandu
Bhaktapur
Lalitpur
Total

906
77
147
1130

80.2
6.8
13.0
100.0

Table 2. Gender of respondents
Male (%)

Female (%)

Kathmandu

51.1

48.9

Bhaktapur
Lalitpur
All

46.8
46.9
50.3

53.2
53.1
49.7

Table 3. Number of households and family size

Bhaktapur
Kathmandu
LalitpurAll

Households
Family size
Median (Min-Max)
1 (1-7)4 (1-7)
2 (1-25)
4 (1-12)2 (1-6)4 (1-8)2 (1-25)
4 (1-12)

Table 4. House ownership status of participants

Bhaktapur
Kathmandu
LalitpurAll

House ownership
Owner
Tenantn (%)
n (%)
59 (77.6)
17 (22.4)
533 (58.8)
373 (41.2)
65 (44.2)
82 (55.8)657 (58.2)
427 (41.8)

Proportion
Owners
3/4
3/5
4/9
4/7

of Proportion oftenants
2/9
2/5
5/9
3/8

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Janajati ethinic group was in higher proportions in our sampling followed by Brahmin and then by
Chettri (Table 5). The percentage of Brahmin ethnic group were higher in Kathmandu and Janajati
were higher in Bhaktapur. The mean age of the respondents were 40 years (Table 6).
Table 5. Ethinicity of households
District

Brahminn (%)

Chettrin (%)

Janajati
n (%)

Dalit
n (%)

Don't want todisclose, n (%)

Bhaktapur

10 (13.0)

5 (6.5)58 (75.3)0 (0)4 (5.2)Kathmandu

228 (25.2)

130 (14.3)

546 (60.3)

1 (0.1)1 (0.1)

Lalitpur26 (17.7)

26 (17.0)

90 (61.2)

2 (1.4)4 (2.7)All

264 (23.4)

160 (14.2)

694 (61.4)

3 (0.3)9 (0.8)

Table 6. Age (in years) of respondents
Bhaktapur
Kathmandu
Lalitpur
All

Mean
42
41
35
40

Median42
40
35
39

Minimum
16
15
15
15

Maximum
75
87
78
87

Majority of our participants attained university level education or at least attended upper secondary
school (Table 7). The most common occupation of the respondents was business followed bydomestic work and then service (Table 8). The mean age of HH heads was 48 years (Table 9).
Most of them have achieved university level education (Table 10) and common profession was
business followed by service (Table 11). On an average monthly expenditure was NRs 35,319(1USD = 107.16, as of 2016/08/03). Based on our data, respondents of Lalitpur district had lower
expenditure (NRs. 17187) among others. Five categories of wealth status was constructed basedon wealth quintile and whole data set was used. Since majority of our respondents were from
Kathmandu district all categories had equal proportion of the HHs. The HHs in Lalitpur district
too were distributed almost equally in 5 wealth quintiles. But, in Bhaktapur district, 40% of the
HHs fall in “rich” category, 8% in “very rich” category and remaining HHs were almost equallydivided into remaining categories (Table 13).

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Table 7. Education of respondents

Bhaktapur
Kathmandu

IlliterateNoformaleducation

2 (2.6)44(4.9)

10 (13.0) 2 (2.6)
164(18.1)
40 (4.4)
18
13 (8.8) (12.2)
187
60 (5.3)(16.5)

LalitpurAll

6 (4.1)52(4.6)

Primaryschool
(1-5)

Lower
secondary (6-9)Upper
College/Univers
secondar ityy (1012)4 (5.2)20 (26.0) 30 (39.0)
271(29.9)
314 (34.7)

60 (6.6)9 (6.1)73 (6.5)

29 (19.7) 65 (44.2)
320
409 (36.2)(28.3)Do not missin
want
g
to
disclose8
1 (1.3) (10.4)
8 (0.9)5 (0.6)

1 (0.7)10(0.9)

6 (4.1)19(1.7)

Table 8. Occupation

14 (18.2)
378 (41.7)
41 (27.9)
433 (38.3)

Skilledmanuallabor
0 (0.0)6 (0.7)3 (2.0)9 (0.8)

Unskilledmanuallabor
0 (0.0)62 (6.8)
3 (2.0)65 (5.8)

Student

House wife

Retired

No jobmissing

5 (6.5)

1 (1.3)0 (0.0)2 (2.6)8 (10.4)

83 (9.2)

2 (0.2)9 (1.0)18 (2.0)

11 (1.2)

34 (23.1)

0 (0.0)0 (0.0)0 (0.0)2 (1.4)122 (10.8)

3 (0.3)9 (0.8)20 (1.8)(I)

Agricultu
reProfession/
ManagerBusinessskill

Bhaktapur
Kathmandu
LalitpurAll

14 (18.2)
1 (0.1)4 (2.7)19 (1.7)

4 (5.2)37 (4.1)
2 (1.4)43 (3.8)(II)
Bhaktapur
Kathmandu
LalitpurAll

Domesticwork
12 (15.6)
167(18.4)
28 (19.0)
207(18.3)

Service

Remittance

15 (19.5)
128 (14.1)
29 (19.7)
172 (15.2)

2 (2.6)4 (0.4)1 (0.7)7 (0.6)21(1.9)

Table 9. Age of household head
Age in years

Mean

MedianMinimum Maximum

Bhaktapur
Kathmandu
Lalitpur
All

47
48
44
48

46
47
44
46

25
15
17
15

75
87
78
87

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Table 10. Education of household head
Illiterate
Bhaktapur
Kathmandu

2 (2.6)49(5.4)

Lalitpur8 (5.4)

All

59
(5.2)

Primar
No formal y
education school(1-5)
8 (10.4)
2 (2.6)212
32(23.4)(3.5)
27
18 912.2)(18.4)
238
61(21.1)(5.4)

Lower
secondary (69)
1 (1.3)
52
(5.7)
10
(6.8)
63
(5.6)

Upper
secondary (1012)17 (22.1)
261(28.8)

College/
Universit
y

Do
not
want
to missing
disclose

34 (44.2)
287(31.7)

1 (1.3)12 (15.6)

8 (0.9)5 (0.6)29 (19.7) 51 (34.7)

0 (0)4 (2.7)307(27.2)

372(32.9)

9 (0.8)21 (1.9)

Table 11. Occupation of household head
(I)

Agriculture

Profession/
ManagerBusinessskill

Skilledlabor

UnskilledlaborService

Remittance

Bhaktapur
Kathmandu
LalitpurAll

20 (26.0)6(0.7)
5 (3.4)31 (2.7)

2 (2.6)46 (5.1)
1 (0.7)49 (4.3)

18 (23.4)
413 (45.6)
60 (40.8)491 (43.5)0 (0)5 (0.6)5 (3.4)10 (0.9)0 (0)98 (10.8)
4 (2.7)102 (9.0)

24 (31.2)
184 (20.3)
46 (31.3)
254 (22.5)3(3.9)
12 (1.3)
9 (6.1)24 (2.1)

House wife

Retired

No jobMissing

0(0)
0 (0)
0 (0)
0 (0)

0(0)
9 (1.0)0 (0)9 (0.8)0 (0)19 (2.1)0 (0)19 (1.7)

6 (7.8)34 (3.8)
6 94.1)46 (4.1)(II)
Bhaktapur
Kathmandu
LalitpurAll

Domesticwork
4 (5.2)70 (7.7)
6 (4.1)80 (7.1)

Student
0 (0)10 (1.1)
5 (3.4)15 (1.3)

18
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

Table 12. Household asset possessions
Assetsn%Assetsn%Electricity

1126

100

Radio

943

83

TV

1113

98

Mobile

1103

98

Phone

906

80

Fridge933

83

Bicycle350

31

Motorbike

814

72

Vehicle

285

25

912

81

Fan

792

70

Computer
Kerosene
stove

380

34

Electric stove

303

27

Gas stove

1093

97

HelperReliability score = 0.67

203

18

Invertor

1126

100

Table 13. Wealth status based on wealth index
Kathmandu

Bhaktapur

Lalitpur

N

%

N

%

N

%

Very poor

184

20

14

18

28

19

Poor

177

20

13

17

37

25

Medium

192

21

13

17

21

14

Rich

173

19

31

40

23

16

Very rich

180

20

6

8

38

26

Total

906

100

77

100

147

100

3.2 Water sources
In this study, piped water connection and presence of groundwater well in respondents’ own
compound were defined as private water source possession. Over all 66% HHs had piped water
connection and 52% HHs had private groundwater inside their compound (Table 14). In
Kathmandu district, 64% HHs had piped water connection and 56% had groundwater well. HHs
in Bhaktapur district had highest piped water connection but lowest groundwater wells. Water
sources other than piped water has been considered as ‘alternative water sources’. In addition to
groundwater, another source that has been widely used was jar water (Table 15). The coverage of
jar water was 72% in Kathmandu and 89% in Lalitpur but it was lowest in Bhaktapur (22%). In
Bhaktapur, tanker water usage was also zero. Its coverage was highest in Lalitpur (75%) but notthat much high in Kathmandu. Among other sources, rain water was also commonly used by HHs.
Other different alternative sources such as stone-spout, river water and spring water were rarely
being used by the participants. The concept of neighbour’s water sources such as piped water orwell water had been first used by ADB (2010). The results showed that people now are notdepending much upon neighbour’s water sources and only 1% of our study participants used public
wells.
19
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

Table 14. Private water source possession
Piped water

Groundwater

n

%

n

%

Kathmandu

583

64

508

56

Bhaktapur

66

86

20

26

Lalitpur

101

69

62

42

All

750

66

590

52

Table 15. Different water sources in use
Rain water

Jar water

Kathmandu
Bhaktapur
Lalitpur

n
45
7
47

%
5
9
32

n
651
17
131

All

99

9

799

Neighbour’s well
water
n
%

Tanker water

Stone spout

%
72
22
89

n
244
0
111

%
27
0
76

n
31
0
1

%
3
0
1

Neighbour’s piped
water
n
%
25
2.8
0
0
2
1.4

71

355

31

32

3

27

River

Public well

Spring

2.4

Others

n

%

n

%

n

%

n

%

Kathmandu

14

1.5

1

.1

4

.4

2

.2

3

.3

Bhaktapur

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Lalitpur

17

11.6

0

0

8

5.4

1

.7

0

0

All

31

2.7

1

.1

12

1.1

3

.3

3

.3

3.2.1 Piped water
When the hours of piped water being supplied in the valley is divided into < or > 4 hours per week
category then majority of the households received water < 4 hours per week (Table 16). Only one
household reported receiving water 24 hours a day. Among three districts, almost all thehouseholds of Lalitpur in this study receive only < 4 hours water supply per week.
Table 16. Piped water supply hours per week
Piped watersupply< 4 hours supplyn%>4 hours supplyn%Continuous supplyn%Don't known%Bhaktapur

36

55

28

42

0

0

2

3

Kathmandu

454

78

118

20

1

0

10

2

Lalitpur

98

97

2

2

0

0

1

1

All

588

78

148

20

1

0

13

2

20
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase IIn Bhaktpur, almost all the households use piped water for drinking, cooking, and bathing (Table
17). Whereas, in Kathmandu and in Lalitpur majority of HHs use it for cooking and bathing. In
both districts only 67% of HHs use piped water for drinking. Over all, piped water is being used
as cooking water source for majority of the HHs. 74% HHs use it for drinking, 76% use it forbathing and 70% use it for laundry.
Table 17. Purpose of use of piped water
Purposes

Kathmandu

Bhaktapur

Lalitpur

All

n

%

n

%

n

%

n

%

Drinking
Cooking
Bathing
Laundry

380
476
412
390

67
84
73
69

62
62
60
52

94
94
91
79

98
98
87
70

67
98
87
70

540
636
559
512

74
87
76
70

Cleaning

362

64

29

44

37

37

428

58

Gardening
Other
purposes

234

43

6

9

10

10

250

35

164

30

0

0

2

2

166

24

3.2.2 Groundwater
Groundwater is mainly being used for laundry, bathing, and house cleaning (Table 18). Onlyaround 12% HHs use it for drinking and 22% for cooking. Compare to Lalitpur and Kathmandu,
use of groundwater for drinking and cooking seemed to be higher and that for bathing, laundry andcleaning seemed to be lower in Bhaktapur.
Table 18. Purpose of use of groundwater
Purposes
Drinking
Cooking
Bathing
Laundry
Cleaning
Gardening
Other
purposes

Kathmandu
n
59
113
446
484
488
364
279

%
12
22
88
95
96
72
55

Bhaktapur
n
6
6
10
13
15
11
1

%
30
30
50
65
75
55
5

Lalitpur
n
5
10
55
54
55
22
11

%
8
17
93
92
93
37
19

All
n
70
129
511
551
558
397
291

%
12
22
87
94
95
68
50

3.2.3 Jar water
Jar water is very widely used water source specially used for drinking purpose. In Kathmandu,
each HH buy jar water on an average of 6.4 times per week which is 4.5 and 4.1 for Bhaktapur and
Lalitpur, respectively (Table 19). Over all, people buy 6 jars of water per week. Among those who
use jar water, almost all use for drinking and around half proportion use for cooking (Table 20).

21
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

Table 19. Frequency of buying jar water

District

Jar water frequency/ week
Mean (SD)MedianKathmandu

6.4 (3.6)

7.0

Bhaktapur

4.5 (2.4)

4.0

Lalitpur4.1 (3.9)

3.0

All

6.0 (3.7)

7.0

Table 20. Purpose of jar water use
Districts

Drinking

Cooking

n

%

n

%

Kathmandu

645

100

328

51

Bhaktapur

17

100

10

59

Lalitpur

131

89

82

63

All

793

100

420

53

3.2.4 Tanker water
Tanker water is bought nearly two times per month (Table 21). Surprisingly, none of the HHs in
Bhaktapur in this study used tanker water. In Kathmandu, among those who used tanker water use
it mainly for bathing, laundry and cleaning (Table 22). Only half of those HHs which used tanker
water, used it for cooking purpose. But almost all of the HHs in Lalitpur use it for cooking. In
Kathmandu, 30% use it for drinking but in Lalitpur that value reached to 84%.
Table 21. Frequency of tanker water buying per monthTanker water frequency/ month
District

Mean (SD)Median1.9 (1.1)

2.0

Kathmandu
Bhaktapur

00Lalitpur1.7 (0.9)

2.0

All

1.9 (1.0)

2.0

Note: Frequency >4/ month omitted in analysis; n/N = 68/354;

22
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

Table 22. Purpose of use of tanker water
Kathmandu

Purposes

LalitpurAll

Drinking

n
73

%
30

n
93

%
84

n
166

%
47

Cooking

130

53

102

92

232

66

Bathing
Laundry
Cleaning
Gardening

225

93

110

99

335

95

225
216
159

93
89
65

103
85
26

93
77
23

328
301
185

93
85
52

Other purposes

131

54

22

20

153

43

Bhaktapur: no tanker water users

3.2.5 Combination of water sources in use
The concept of categorizing the use of different water sources into three was used by ADB (2010).
Here, improved is defined as using piped water only, alternative meant sources other than pipedwater. None of the HHs depend totally in Kathmandu whereas it was 4% in Bhaktapur and 1% in
Lalitpur (Table 23). In contrast, 36%, 14% and 31% HHs in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur,
respectively, use alternative source only.
Table 23. Combination of water sources in use
Improved only

Improved and alternative

Alternative only

n

%

n

%

n

%

Kathmandu

0

0

583

64

323

36

Bhaktapur

3

4

63

82

11

14

Lalitpur

2

1

99

67

46

31

All

5

0

745

66

380

34

Water use

Improve: Piped water; Alternative: Groundwater, jar water, tanker water, rain water, spring water, stone spout, and river water

Water consumption in this study is based on piped water, groundwater, jar water and tanker water.
Over all, mean water consumption per HH was 436 L/ day (Table 24). Highest volume of water
consumption was in Kathmandu followed by Bhaktapur and then by Lalitpur. Highest water
consumption per capita (LPCD) was in Bhaktapur. Both in Kathmandu and in Bhaktapur, LPCD
exceeded optimum level (100 L) as defined by Howard & Batram (2003) but that was at the brinkof the level for Lalitpur. It showed that although there is very poor provision of water by the utility,
people somehow are managing to access for the optimal level of the water they need even in dry
season. However, the quality of the water being used is uncertain and it will be interesting to know
the consumption pattern difference in wet season.

23
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

Table 24. Water use per day per HH & per capita (Excluding spring and river water)

Bhaktapur
n = 77
Kathmandu
n = 906
Lalitpurn=147
All
N = 1130

Water use perhousehold per
day in litres

Water use percapita per day inlitres (LPCD)

MeanMedian

385
300

162
80

Mean
Median

458
320

122
80

Mean
Median

329
233

96
63

Mean
Median

436
291

121
80

3.3 Water use by house ownership
ADB (2010) reported significant differences in the water sources and amount of water used byowners and tenants. In this study, the percentage of tenants using groundwater, rainwater, jar water,neighbour’s well and public well were slightly higher than that of owners (Table 25). Whereas, thepercentage of owners using tanker water and stone spout were slightly higher than that of tenants.
However, equal percentage of owner and tenants were depending on alternative water source only
(Table 26).
Table 25. Different sources in use by owner and tenants
Ownership

Piped waterN%

GroundwaterN%

RainwaterN%

Jar water
N%

Tanker water
N
%

Owner

435

66.2

328

49.9

46

7.0

441

67.1

223

33.9

Tenant

314

66.5

262

55.5

49

10.4

358

75.8

132

28.0

Owner

Neighbor's
piped water
N
%
15
2.3

Neighbor's
well water
N
%
14
2.1

Stone
spout
Public well
water
N
%
N
%
22
3.3
5
.8

Tenant12

17

10

Ownership

2.5

3.6

2.1

7

1.5

Spring water
N
1

%
0.2

2

0.4

24
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

Table 26. Combination of water sources
Ownership
Improved water only
Improved andalternative water only
Alternative only

Owner
n
4

%
.6

Tenant
n
1

%
.2

431

65.6

313

66.3

222

33.8

158

33.5

Table 27. Water consumption per HH and per capita
Ownership ofhouse
Owner (n = 657)

Tenant (n = 472)

Water consumption (L/ day)
Per capita
125
Mean
88
Median
111
SD
116
Mean
56
Median171
SDp-value > 0.05 (Independent sample t-test)

Although slight differences on coverage of different water sources were seen between owner andtenants, mean water consumption per capita were not different significantly (p-value > 0.05) (Table
27).
3.3 Monthly water cost and willingness to pay
The mean monthly cost for piped water, jar water and tanker water were NRs. 267, NRs. 1145 andNRs. 4029 respectively (Table 28). The mean monthly cost for HHs in Bhaktapur was NRs. 261
and NRs. 1434 for piped water and jar water respectively. NRs. 4507 per month has been paid by
HHs in Kathmandu for tanker water. And, HHs in Lalitpur paid NRs. 331 for piped water.

25
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

Table 28. Monthly cost of piped water, jar water, tanker water and total water use
Piped water
cost/month

Jar
water
cost/monthTanker water
cost/ month

Bhaktapur

Valid cases

66

17

0

n = 77

Mean (NRs)

261

1434

0

Median (NRs)

300

1200

0

Kathmandu

Valid cases

556

651

243

n = 906

Mean (NRs)

257

1180

4507

Median (NRs)

150

1260

2700

Lalitpur

Valid cases

96

131

111

n=147

Mean (NRs)

331

933

2981

Median (NRs)

200

600

2000

Valid cases

718

799

354

Mean (NRs)

267

1145

4029

150

1120

2400

All
N = 1130

Median (NRs)
N or n = valid cases + missing cases

Table 29. Monthly water cost
Category

Summary

Kathmandu

MeanMedianStd. Deviation
MeanMedianStd. Deviation
MeanMedianStd. Deviation
MeanMedianStd. Deviation
MeanMedianStd. Deviation
MeanMedianStd. Deviation

Bhaktapur
Lalitpur
Owner
TenantAll

Monthly cost (NRs.)
1579
1400
1509
374
300
404
2379
2010
1670
1694
1400
1632
1482
1365
1399
1607
1400
1544

In this study, the mean monthly cost for water paid by the participants were NRs. 1607 (Table 29).
The monthly cost of water paid by HHs has been categorized by district and ownership of house.
HHs in Bhaktapur paid only NRs. 374 monthly whereas HHs in Lalitpur paid NRs. 2379. Low
26
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

monthly water cost for Bhaktpur might be because tanker water use was none and less percentage
of HHs used jar water (Table 15). The difference in monthly cost between owners and tenants was
also not very big.
Table 30. Willingness to pay for good quality water
Willingness to Pay (NRs.)
Kathmandu Bhaktapur Lalitpur All
Mean
515
Median300
Std.
712
Deviation

494
400

378
250

496
300

853

408

690

The willingness to pay (WTP) for good quality water was not very high compared to the monthly
cost they are spending for water (Table 30). Maximum mean WTP was reported by HHs in
Kathmandu which as NRs. 515.
3.4 Water treatment practices
Almost all HHs treat drinking water (Table 31). Only 20% HHs treat water used for cooking, 10%treat water used for vegetable washing and brushing teeth. Nearly 4% HHs used water for bathing
purpose too. Among the different types of methods used for treating drinking, cooking, vegetablewashing and teeth brushing water, filtering, using ceramic filter, was the widely adapted method(Table 32). For treating drinking water, 44% of HHs use more than one type of treatment method,
12% of HHs boil only, 2% HHs used electric filter only and 2% HHs used Chlorine/ Alum/ Potash
only. For treating cooking water, 23% HHs use more than one type of treatment method. 9% HHs
use chemicals, 6% HHs use boiling, 4% HHs use domestic treatment plant for treating water used
for cooking. For bathing, 50% HHs used chemical treatment method.
Table 31. Treatment of water used for different purposes
Treatment
PurposeDrinking
Cooking

No
n
178
889

%
15.8
78.7

Yes
n
947
228

%
83.8
20.2

missing
n
%
5
0.4
13
1.2

Vegetable wash

1001

88.6

115

10.2

14

1.2

Brushing teeth

1008

89.2

108

9.6

14

1.2

Bathing

1074

95.0

42

3.7

14

1.2

Other purposes

1089

96.4

24

2.1

17

1.5

27
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

Table 32. Different water treatment methodologies in practice%Vegwashingn%

Brushing
teeth
n
%

127

57

79

71

68

12
2

14
2

6
1

2
1

2
1

Chlorine/Alum/Potash 16

2

20

9

19

Domestic
plant

3

0

9

4

More than one type

412

44

52

Total

936

100

224

Method of treatments

Drinking

Cooking

n

%

n

40

Filtering(Ceramic
371
filter)Boiling
113
Electric filter
21
treatment

Bathing

Others

n

%

n

%

74

13

33

6

26

-

-

3
2

8
5

1

4

17

18

20

20

50

16

70

4

4

6

7

2

5

-

-

23

6

5

-

-

-

-

-

-

100

111

100

92

100

40

100

23

100

3.5 Sanitation and hygiene
In this sub-heading the data on wastewater management practice and cleaning frequency of water
storage vessels were included. The HHs which were connected to sewer were 96% and 4% still
flush their waste to septic tank or pit (Table 33). Less than 60% of HHs in both Bhaktapur and
Lalitpur were connected to sewer and around 40% had septic tank or pit.
Hygiene behaviour such as cleaning of storage vessel has been directly linked with risk ofdiarrhoeal diseases. 81% of HHs clean the storage vessels every day. 14% clean them on weekly
basis and 4% on monthly basis as well (Table 34).
Table 33. Wastewater management category

Kathmandu
Bhaktapur
LalitpurAll

Flush to piped
sewer
n
%
868
96
44
57
86
59
998
88

Flush to septic
tank/pit
n
%
36
4
33
43
54
37
123
11

Flus tosomewhere
n
%
0
0
0
0
3
2
3
0

Missing
n
2
0
4
6

%
0
0
3
1

Table 34. Frequency of cleaning water storage vessels
YearlyMonthly
WeeklyDaily
NeverMissing

n
1.0
48.0
154.0
916.0
6.0
5.0

%
.1
4.2
13.6
81.1
.5
.4
28

WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

3.6 Health status
The percentage of HHs reporting physical illness in this study was 11%. These physical symptoms
were related with water such as back pain, stomach ache, scabies, trachoma etc. Only 1.6% HHs
reported that at least one of their family member experience diarrheoa in last two weeks (Table
35). The number of cases were none for Bhaktapur, 11 (1.2%) for Kathmandu and 7 (4.8%) for
Lalitpur district. 41% HHs in Bhakatpur did deworming in last 6 months and the percentage was
19 for Kathmandu and 20 for Lalitpur (Table 36).
Table 35. Diarrhoea cases last two weeks
District
Bhaktapur
Kathmandu
LalitpurFrequency
011
7Percent
0.0
1.2
4.8

All

18

1.6

Table 36. Deworming in last 6 months
District
Bhaktapur

Frequency
32

Percent
41.6

Kathmandu

173

19.2

Lalitpur

30

20.4

All

235

20.8

29
WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

4. Conclusion and limitation
This study assessed different dynamics of HH water use in dry season in the Kathmandu Valley
which is undergoing a severe water scarcity. After ADB report (2010), this is the first wide scale
HH survey in the Kathmandu Valley. The uniqueness of this study lies in the vision of bringing theinformation about HH water dynamics on to the surface. Per capita water consumption had always
been an issue of debate due to lack of detailed information. In addition, in this growing watermarket, pattern of water buying and the cost associated will be an interesting information forseveral researchers as well as to different stake holders. This report tried to estimate HH
expenditure in water only. Similarly, this study added facts and figures about water treatment
practices, sanitation and hygiene practices in HHs and about health situation.
Less than 67% HHs possessed private water source (either piped water or groundwater).
66% HHs have piped water connection and 52% HHs have groundwater well. Among different
alternative water sources, the coverage of jar water was highest (71%) followed by groundwaterand then tanker water (31%). Majority of HHs use jar water for drinking purpose and groundwaterand tanker water for bathing, laundry and cleaning. Piped water was supplied only < 4 hours/ week.
So, basically the demand of large volume water had been full filled either by groundwater or bytanker water. Among three districts in this study, HHs in Bhaktapur did not rely on tanker water.
On an average, frequency of buying jar water and tanker water were 6/ per week and 2/ monthrespectively. The estimated mean LPCD in this study was 121. The mean monthly expenditure inwater was NRs. 1607 but the mean WTP for good quality water was 3 times lower than thisexpenditure.
Majority of HHs treat drinking water and mostly used treatment methods were with filter(40%) or more than one type of methods (44%). It is found that some percentage of HHs treat
water for cooking and for washing vegetables too and the most common treatment method wasfiltering. However, those HHs which responded that they treat water for bathing, majority havereported treating it by chemical method. 88% of HHs were connected to sewer lines. 81% of HHs
clean their water storing vessels daily. The percentage of HHs reporting diarrhoea were only 1.6%.
The findings of every study should be interpreted in the light of some limitations. One
limitation of this study is related to little ambiguity in information related to tanker water amountused by HHs. Since several sequential similar surveys are ongoing we look forward to revise andcurb the before mentioned limitation and release more revised data in near future. Apart of such
limitation, our study has unveiled different dynamics of rarely studied HH water consumption
aspect. Our team hopes that these data will be helpful in decision making for betterment of thewater sector in the Kathmandu Valley and we recommend further researches on the scenario ofwater insecurity and the effect of water unavailability on people’s life.

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WASH-MIA Rapid Report

Phase I

References
ADB. 2010. Kathmandu Valley Water Supply and Waste Water System Improvement Project. AsianDevelopment Bank. Kathmandu, Nepal.
ADB/APWF. 2013. Asian Water Development Outlook 2013 – Measuring water security in Asiaand the Pacific. Asian Development Bank, Phillipines.
Andrews, CT, & Yniguez, CE. 2004. Water in Asian Cities: Utilities' performance and civil society
views. Asian Development Bank, Vol. 10.
CBS. 2012. National Population and Housing Census 2011(Village Development Committee /Municipality). Central Bureau of Statistics, Government of Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Cordova A. 2009. Methodological Note: Measuring relative wealth using household asset
indicators. Latin American Public Opinion Project, “Insights” series.
Howard G, Batram J, World Health Organization. Water Sanitation and Health Team. 2003.
Domestic Water Quantity, Service Level and Health. World Health Organization, Geneva.
KUKL. 2010. KUKL - At a Glance, Third Anniversary. Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited,
Kathmandu, Nepal.
UNICEF/WHO. 2012. Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2012 Update. UNICEF andWorld Health Organization, United States of America.

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