There are other factors at play. For instance, Take away petrol from Kathmandu, or jack up its per unit price, and see riots erupting and tires burning on streets almost immediately. Why? Because people are used to buying and paying for petrol to go about their daily activities. Petrol's prices in Kathmandu are dependent on international prices and NOT on what aaa-poorti mantri says. But the same emotions, alas, CANNOT be stiired for water. Not yet anyway. Why? Because people are NOT used to buying and paying for piped water reliably and regularly in Nepal. Yes, water is nature's gift. But as my dear friend Narayan Manandhar has written someplace, nature did not give us pipes and taps as gifts too! Hence we need to find ways to pay for those. Since people don't have piped water in the first place, they are not going to miss it much when a potential to deliver such water is taken away from them . . . as Yami is likely to do. You can't miss what you don't have in the first place! Hence, we won't see water riots in Kathmandu over Yami's decision. The present Khanay Paani Sanshthan with its four different labour unions (aligned respectively with Congressi/Marxist/Maoist and RPP beechaar) simply does not have the motivation to clean up its act to focus on one core activity: Deliver water reliably and regularly to all who pay for it. That's the way it's been for the last 50 --n yes F-I-F-T-Y years. Only a fool believes that Khanay Paani Sansthaan is going to change anytime soon with the way it is. Sure, getting the foreign contrator is NOT an ideal/perfect solution. But considering the alternatives (continued mismanagement by sarkari bureaucrats and party-political hacks with ZERO accountability to anyone), it's a good-enough solution with enough safeguards and with many eyes watching it to see how it works. Having tried one system for the last fifty years and getting all the more dry, we are thirsty for a change. oohi ashu