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31 June, Surkhet. Due to the severe shortage of drinking water in the village, the residents of West Surkhet have started a protest carrying a garri. Residents of Choukune Rural Municipality-5, Rekcha, reached the rural municipality office carrying Dokoma Gagri on Thursday afternoon.
They came from Rekcha to Gutu, the center of the rural municipality, they were carrying a doko with a garri on their back and a leaflet in their hand.
The pamphlet they are carrying reads, ‘How many years will the government wait for one gallon of water in the 21st century?’ They started the protest by forming the Rekcha Water Supply Struggle Committee and raised slogans saying ‘Solve the drinking water problem’ and ‘Enforce constitutional fundamental rights’.
Tapendra Chhetri, the coordinator of the drinking water struggle committee, says that since all the wells have dried up due to drought this year, the municipality has been forced to cordon off the wells for drinking water. There are no sources of water in Rekcha, we have to rely on wells. This year, due to the drought, everything has dried up, there is a shortage of water in the village,’ he said, ‘we have become like fish without water.’
In Rekcha, where there are about 80 households, due to the drought, the wells have dried up and the local residents are in need of water.
According to the coordinator Tapendra, who is also a ward member, 8 out of 10 wells built in 2016 in Rekcha are unused. The remaining two wells have also dried up due to drought. Except during the drought, 2 grams of water was being distributed daily.
This water is used for cooking, drinking, washing hands and cleaning. The local people have to feed the cattle as well.
‘Which government did not ask to deliver water and we? We met all MPs, state ministers, ministers, chief ministers, Tapendra said, but no one listened to our problems. And we didn’t have an alternative to protest.’
A few years ago, the Karnali state government started the Lift Water Project at a cost of Rs 12.6 million. But the budget was not enough for the project, on the other hand, due to the lack of access to electricity, the project is currently at a standstill. No matter how many leaders come to ask for votes, they say they will deliver water, but they never do the work. We got assurances from many leaders but we didn’t get water’, coordinator Tapendra says.
Due to drought in Rekcha, the water level in the well decreases from the end of February. Local residents say that there is a shortage of water as the well dries up by the month of May.
A watchman has also been kept in Rekcha to take care of the well. Chowkidar Jagat Shahi said that water will be distributed from 5 am to 10 pm. He has been cutting others’ water and giving more in marriage, fasting and death ceremonies.
Local Jagat Bahadur Budha lamented that he could not bathe and wash clothes for months due to lack of water. ‘We reached Kathmandu during the Panchayat period asking for water supply scheme in Rekcha. Even after that, I will plead with the government many times’ he said, 79 years old, ‘When I asked for water, two or three arrangements were changed. But our throats never got wet.’
69-year-old Padamsingh Budha, the chowkidar of the well, said that this 560-year-old settlement has had water supply problems since the time he was aware of it. According to him, the current wells were built in 2016. Later, after the theft of water, a watchman was appointed to take care of the well from 2055.
According to the National Census-2078, only 35.64 percent of the residents of Karnali have access to drinking water. Among them, almost 96.5 percent of the families have not been tested for water hygiene.
Out of 3 lakh 66 thousand 37 households, only 1 lakh 30 thousand 465 households have been provided with drinking water facility through organized water supply scheme. The remaining 235,000 houses have to consume water from alternative sources. 4 thousand 276 households still have to use river water every twelve months.
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