An economic reappraisal of the Melamchi water supply project - Kathmandu,Nepal

This paper examines whether the benefits of the Melamchi water supply project in Nepal are likely to exceed its costs, assuming that high-quality municipal water services can be delivered to households and firms in the urbanized part of the Kathmandu Valley. Monte Carlo simulations are used to explore the sensitivity of the net present value and economic internal rate of return calculations to a wide range of assumptions and input parameters. We find that extreme assumptions are not required to generate large differences in economic feasibility; quite plausible differences in the values of some key parameters can lead to large differences in the economic attractiveness of the project. The results reveal that the three most important influences on net present value and economic internal rate of return are: (i) the discount rate and discounting procedure; (ii) the magnitude of monthly benefits for households connected to the new water system; and (iii) the annual growth rate in monthly benefits of connected households after the project comes on line. Our contribution lies in illustrating, with an actual case study in a developing country, the degree to which cost-benefit calculations of large infrastructure projects are influenced by key economic modeling assumptions and input parameters.JEL Classification: H42, H43, H54, Q25, Q56 Correspondence to: Dale WhittingtonWe would especially like to thank Keiichi Tamaki (ADB) and Ian Hill (Acres International) for their guidance and assistance with this project. We would also like to thank the following individuals for their help during our mission to Kathmandu in May, 2003: Richard W. A. Vokes, Kathie M. Julian, Raj Kumar Malla, Madan Shankar Shrestha, Suman Prasad Sharma and Noor Kumar Tamrakar.     

Application of an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in the GIS interface for suitable fire site selection: A case study from Kathmandu Metropolitan City,Nepal

Kathmandu Metropolitan City, the capital city of Nepal, is prone to different types of disasters. Fire disaster is one of the most recurring in the city. Due to haphazard urbanization, poor fire services, few and old fire engines, insufficient skilled human resources combined with narrow road lanes, clustered households increase the fire vulnerability in Kathmandu Metropolitan City. This paper documents the fire station suitability zonation mapping in Kathmandu Metropolitan City using Group Decision Making Process (GDMP) in the GIS interface. Four different selection criteria factors such as distance from roads, land cover, distance from rivers and population density are considered for analysis and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used for Group Decision Making Process (GDMP). The results reveal that only 13.46% of the study area is highly suitable for fire station location. Hence, the fire station suitability zonation map is trustworthy and can be used for the construction of new fire stations in Kathmandu Metropolitan City.