Nepal: The source of the
Kapke Drinking Water Project in ward 9 of Barekot Rural Municipality dried up
after the magnitude 6.4 earthquake jolted the area on November 3 last year. The
water intake area subsided nearly by nearly one foot after the quake. There has
been an acute shortage of drinking water in the Kapke area over the past seven
months, leaving 120 households in hardships. The locals are forced to manage
water from the Sidherikhola stream, which is around half an hour walk from the
settlement.
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| photo: TKP |
“We have to be frugal
in using water due to the water crisis in the area. The villagers are forced to
wake up early to manage drinking water. The women and children spend the whole
morning fetching water from the spring,” said Gajendra BK of Kapke.
Plight of the locals
in Ghartigaun in ward 6 of Barekot and Bayala in ward 1 is also the same.
Various settlements in the area are reeling under water crisis as the November
3 quake damaged drinking water projects. Around 200 families in Ghartigaun and
Bayala are hugely affected. The villagers have no alternative than to go to the
nearest streams or other water sources for drinking water.
“One gagri (water
pot) of water that I fetch in the morning is hardly enough to prepare a morning
meal and for drinking purposes. One has to be busy from dawn to dusk fetching
water from the nearby spring after the earthquake damaged the drinking water
project,” lamented Bimala Gharti of Barekot-6. “It is quite difficult to carry
water uphill. And there is always the threat of wildlife attack as we have to
go to the water spring in the wee hours,” she shared her ordeal.
Many water sources
have dried up in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit Jajarkot, Rukum West
and Salyan districts in the Karnali Province. According to the data available
at the District Administration Office in Jajarkot, the sources of 143 drinking
water projects dried up in the district after the November earthquake. Water
supply has been disrupted in 106 drinking water projects as the quake caused
substantial damage to reserve tanks and pipelines.
Nalgad Municipality
is the hardest hit by the water crisis. There is an acute water shortage as 23
drinking water projects were destroyed while 26 others suffered partial damage
in the natural disaster.
“Around 3,000
families of various settlements in Nalgad are reeling under an acute shortage
of water. The villagers are forced to drink unsafe water from the Bheri river
and other sources, exposing them to various water-borne diseases,” said Dambar
Bahadur Rawat, deputy mayor of Nalgad. According to him, the number of patients
suffering from diarrhoea and dysentery is rising in recent times, apparently
due to drinking unsafe water.
According to Nalgad
Municipal Hospital, around 150 patients visit the health institution on a daily
basis now. “Most of the patients suffer from fever, diarrhoea, typhoid and common
cold. Open defecation by the quake-displaced people living in temporary
shelters causes serious health problems. There could be an outbreak of
diarrhoeal diseases if the problem is not addressed immediately,” said Dr
Bishal Uprety, chief at the hospital.
Around 8,000
temporary shelters, according to Rawat, were built in Nalgad Municipality.
“Some people have been using old toilets while others defecate in the open,”
said Rawat.
Bheri Municipality,
located at the headquarters, is also facing a drinking water problem.
“There was always a
shortage of drinking water in ward 4 of Bheri Municipality, but it was all
manageable with the water from natural springs. Currently, everybody is forced
to buy water for all purposes because all natural springs dried up after the
earthquake,” said Basant Prasad Sharma, chairman of the ward.
Residents of Kudu in
ward 13 of the municipality have been grappling with water shortages for years.
A tap has been installed for nearly 300 families in Kudu after drilling a deep
borewell.
“I wake up at 3:00 am
in the morning and reach the tap to get in line because water is available only
for a short time. When the tap runs dry, people are compelled to walk to the
Bheri River three kilometres away, to fetch murky water,” said Sarita Rokaya, a
local of Kudu who is living in a temporary shelter after her house was
completely destroyed in the earthquake.
After the earthquake,
nearly 80 percent of the locals of Kudu have migrated to temporary shelters
made up of zinc sheets. Due to the shortage of drinking water, locals are
forced to drink dirty and unsafe water.
“In the zinc sheet
shelter it gets extremely hot during the day, we need more water to stay
hydrated and for cleaning purposes. But there is not enough water,” Rokaya
added.
Due to the lack of
irrigation and drinking water, the locals of Kudu cultivate only summer crops.
In order to solve the drinking water problem in Kudu, as part of the Integrated
Karnali Irrigation Development Project, the government installed a deep borewell
that could work using solar energy last year by spending Rs56.3 million.
Harka Bahadur Rokaya,
another local of Kudu, said that after the earthquake, even the borewell is not
pumping water like before.
Badri Pant, the
chairman of ward 4 of Nalgad Municipality, said that after the earthquake, the
water shortage has worsened in all the surrounding areas of the ward.
“All the springs
slowly dried up after the earthquake, and the water level in the Bheri River is
also very low. There is no alternative option except to use the murky water of
the river,” said Pant. “Animal husbandry has also been greatly affected due to
the water shortage,” Pant added.
Bir Bahadur Giri,
chairman of Barekot Rural Municipality, said that plans are being made and
prioritised to solve the problem of water shortage in the rural municipality.
“Along with other
public structures, the earthquake has destroyed water supply projects in all
wards, and we have accelerated the repair work on ten damaged projects, which
is expected to be completed before the end of the current fiscal year,” said
Giri.
“We have requested
the provincial government to help us build a big drinking water project to
solve the water scarcity problem in the municipality, but so far we have not
received any reply,” said Chandraprakash Gharti, mayor of Bheri Municipality.
According to the
Ministry of Water Resources and Energy Development of Karnali Province, the
earthquake damaged 480 water supply projects in Jajarkot, Salyan, and Rukum
West, and the loss caused to the projects has been estimated at Rs3 billion.
“The damaged projects
will be reconstructed and repaired with the cooperation of the government of
all three levels,” said Nabin Chandra Adhikari, secretary of the Ministry of
Water Resources and Energy Development of Karnali Province.
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