How much money?

Asian Development Bank: 120 million U.S. dollars (uncertain)
Japan Bank for International Cooperation: 52 million dollars
Norway: 28 million dollars (terminated)
Swedish International Development Agency: 25 million dollars (uncertain)
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries: 14 million dollars
Nordic Development Fund: 9 million dollars
Government of Nepal: 120 million dollars

Asia Water Wire's Bikash Sangraula interviewed UN-HABITAT's Dr Roshan Raj Shrestha, on the implications of what happens to the Melamchi megaproject in Nepal.

Dr Shreshtha, Chief Technical Advisor, Water for Asian Cities Programme, UN HABITAT in Kathmandu, replied in his personal capacity.

AWW: If Melamchi collapses (which is highly likely), what will be its impact on the water supply situation in Kathmandu Valley ?

KATHMANDU (Asia Water Wire) -  A 464 million U.S. dollar water megaproject has turned from being a model project expected to ease the Nepali capital's water problems to an exemplary case of bad investment for foreign donors.

   The Melamchi Water Supply Project, a water diversion scheme that went underway in 2001, has become a political wrestling ring in recent months, caught in charges of corruption that some say are embroiled in domestic politicking.

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (Asia Water Wire) - Uzbek ecologists and irrigators are attempting to revive a canal project that was first conceived 30 years ago to bring water from Siberian rivers to Central Asia, saying this will enable the region to meet its future water needs.

   The 2,550-kilometre canal is envisioned to start near the Russian city of Khanty-Mansiysk, where the Irtysh River flows into the Ob, passing through Kazakhstan and reaching the Amu Darya River in north-western Uzbekistan. It would be 200 metres wide and 16 metres deep. 

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyz Republic (Asia Water Wire) -  In late spring last year, a group of Kyrgyz farmers took a decision that could have upset the delicate relations between two Central Asian neighbours of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

DHAKA (Asia Water Wire) - India’s ambitious multi-billion dollar project to connect major rivers in South Asia to augment water supply in its southern states threatens to alter large ecosystems in neighbouring Bangladesh.

   This is in addition to criticism that the water diversion plan would displace tribal people and lacks transparency, apart from the fact that Bangladesh remembers tough lessons from negative transboundary impacts from the construction of the Farraka Barrage by India some three decades ago.

LAHORE, Pakistan (AWW) - The lush greenery along the waterway leading to fields in the outskirts of Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore is somewhat out of place in what used to be a water-scarce area.

SINGAPORE (IPS) - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong believes that the island country's water dependency on mainland Malaysia has been a blessing in disguise that has helped turn ''vulnerability into strength''.

   Water, observed Lee recently, ''is for us, not an inexhaustible gift of nature, but a precious fruit of our efforts which we must husband and use wisely''.

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The United Nations has warned that by 2025, about 1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity.

   If that's the gloomy scenario, says Kathryn Mulvey, executive director of Corporate Accountability International, then the September U.N. Millennium Summit should explore the potential for an international treaty to protect the human right to water.

YARZULI, INDIA (Asia Water Wire) - Bengia Abo grew up in this lush, green mountain village sprawling on the banks of the Panyor River here in upper Arunachal Pradesh state in north-east India.

   “Panyor is like our mother," the 32-year-old, who belongs to the indigenous Nishi tribe, told IPS as he stood on a ridge overlooking the snow-fed river on a recent afternoon. "It supports the lives of thousands of indigenous people in the area.