Two main sources of water are the springs at Dudh Pokahri and Sim Jhowahiti, which provide drinking water through a centralized piped water supply system with a capacity of 2200m3 per day for Dudh Pokhari and 1000m3 per day for Sim Jhowahiti (ICIMOD, 2003). An additional source at Lwangkot, which lies outside the municipal boundary in Machhengaun VDC, has a capacity of 1200m3 per day and serves the old core area of the municipality. A large number of households in the municipality still depend upon traditional water sources such as wells, stone spouts, springs and ponds. A study in 1999 showed that only 25% of households had piped water supply (www.earthscape.org). A number of public taps have been constructed by the Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC) but there are still many areas that lack a drinking- water supply. Available water sources are not fully utilized. Due to this, different parts of Kirtipur especially Salyansthan is facing extreme shortage of drinking water.
The water sources in Kirtipur are in abundance with sufficient water production capacity. But there are still many areas in Kirtipur which lack drinking water supply. Many factors contribute to this problem. One of the major factors is its difficult terrain. It is difficult to distribute water in Kirtipur without pumping. The other reason is the insufficient capacity of the reservoir for storage. There is large wastage of water due to insufficient storage capacity. The supply is intermittent particularly during dry season (NSET, 2000). Besides these, the residents, located closer to the water source suggest that the total potentiality of water sources couldn't be estimated since 2-3 years due to less amount of rainfall. The less rainfall as well as lack of water storage for existing sources has negatively impacted the supply. The low or no rainfall in winter has caused the drying of wells and ponds, which has created a great water scarcity. The groundwater recharge is affected by low or no rainfall in winter. Groundwater sources are mainly used for domestic purpose. But when these sources couldn't be recharged, the communities' dependency springs increased, which are also flowing lower than in the past. Therefore, the shortage of water has increased over the years.
According to NSET (2000), the water consumption for domestic purpose in Kirtipur is 30-35 litres per capita per day (lpcd). If the water consumption for domestic purpose is allocated as 100 lpcd, the projected water demand for domestic purpose in Kirtipur Municipality for the year 2011 and 2021 will be as given in table. The table indicates the total water demand of Kirtipur will increase with the growth of population. It can be calculated that from by the year 2011 the water demand will increase by about 24% as against that of 2001 and by 33% in 2021.
| Year | Gross Population | Water Demand(mld) |
| 2001 | 38469 | 3.8 |
| 2011 | 47222 | 4.7 |
| 2021 | 57966 | 5.7 |
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