Now, Kathmandu residents are consuming Melamchi water. Nearly two and a half decades after the project entered the construction phase, Kathmandu residents are consuming Melamchi water through a 27-km-long tunnel located in Helambu, Sindhupalchowk.

Melamchi water is still not guaranteed to be drinkable for twelve months. Melamchi can be taken as an example of why development projects in the country cannot be implemented at a rapid pace due to the time it takes to complete a national priority project and the new obstacles that arise during construction. Melamchi can become a subject of study for researchers of development projects. Melamchi has taught a valuable lesson about our weaknesses in development efforts due to the background of its beginning and the time it takes to complete construction.

Melamchi River is one of the projects that was started to be studied during the Panchayat period to solve the drinking water problem of the people of Kathmandu. Its study was conducted in 1982 by a research organization of the United Kingdom named Winnie and Partners. Out of the 20 projects it studied, Melamchi was given priority. But its implementation was neglected throughout the Panchayat period. After the political change in 2046, the interim government's Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai made a public statement to implement the plan to bring Melamchi to Kathmandu. 30 years after he made the statement, Melamchi water was released into Kathmandu for the first time in Chaitra 2077.

In 2052, as a 100-day achievement during the tenure of the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, the Minister of Housing and Physical Planning, Balram Gharti Magar, had also included the decision to bring Melamchi water to Kathmandu in 2058. He had announced the plan to bring 510 million liters of water daily to Kathmandu from Melamchi, which would be built in three phases, in a press conference. In a press conference organized in Kathmandu on 2052 Poush 6, he had informed that Rs 10.4 billion would be spent on the construction of a treatment plant and development of a distribution system in the first phase. Stating that this project was the most expensive project in the drinking water sector, he claimed that a 15-megawatt hydroelectric project in Sundarijal could also be operated with the same water.

At that time, it was said that the Melamchi Water Public Limited Company would be established with the participation of the government and other organizations including the Nepal Drinking Water Corporation, United Mission to Nepal, Himal Hydro and General Construction Limited, Butwal Power Company for the construction of the project's tunnel and dam. The government proposed to build Melamchi by selling public shares and gathering support from national/international organizations. A proposal was also made at that time to give the responsibility of distributing water to the Drinking Water Corporation at a fixed rate based on cost.

The government also stated that there was no problem in implementing the project based on technical, economic and environmental studies. The project was estimated to be able to withstand an earthquake of 7 on the Richter scale. A full social study conducted by Australia's Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation (SMEC) in 1990 also concluded that Melamchi was an excellent project in technical, environmental and social terms. SMEC had prepared a report that the Melamchi project was acceptable not only financially but also to consumers.

The first phase of construction was estimated to meet the drinking water demand till 2010. Minister Gharti Magar had informed that the second phase would bring water from Yangri and the third phase from Larke River to Kathmandu. The demand for water in the valley was 130 million liters per day. But at that time, the government was supplying 110 million liters of water per day during the rainy season and 60 million liters during the dry season. Technicians had said that by arranging additional water from places like Chapagaun and Lele, it would be possible to supply 14 million liters of water per day by 2053/054.

When Kathmandu was facing a water shortage in the 1950s, the decision to build the Melamchi project was a matter of public concern. That is why the minister called the decision to build the Melamchi project the achievement of the Deuba government in 100 days. The Kantipur Daily published a news item titled ‘Decision to implement the Melamchi Drinking Water Project’ on 2052 Poush 7.

But most of the proposals announced by the minister at that time did not succeed . Although it was said to be completed in 2058, the Melamchi water reached Kathmandu in 2077  . The power project that was supposed to be built in Sundarijal was not implemented  . Although domestic investment was envisaged, all the investment had to depend on loans from the Asian Development Bank  .

The estimated cost of 10.4 billion has so far reached more than 65 billion   . Melamchi is still being portrayed as a corrupt project