The House of Representatives, on Wednesday, passed a bill that aims to privatize the distribution of drinking water in the Kathmandu Valley.

The Amendment of the Nepal Drinking Water Act was approved by the parliament by majority.

Lawmakers belonging to Nepali Congress, NC (Democratic) and the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) backed the bill while those belonging to People’s Front Nepal (KC faction), and Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) opposed it. Two MPs of UML Ananda Pokharel and Prakash Jwala abstained the voting.

The opposing MPs have claimed that privatization of the drinking water distribution would escalate the cost of drinking water for the valley residents.

Earlier, presenting the bill in the parliament, Minister of State for Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki claimed that the bill would only hand over the management of the distribution system to the private sector company on contract basis and would not fully privatize the sector.

Meanwhile, Speaker Subas Nemwang had to adjourn the session of the parliament for a brief period after there was a lack of quorum to pass the bill.

With the passage of the bill, the government can now form a separate Drinking Water Board to distribute water in the valley. The management of the board is expected to be awarded to foreign company.