Darla gewog has contracted works to a private construction company to provide drinking water to Darla residents and Kesari village under the same gewog
The residents of Darla town are desperately seeking a permanent solution to the drinking water shortage, which has been an extreme hassle for them since years.
Despite several attempts by the gewog administration to fix the problem, more than 152 households still face acute drinking water shortage.
Speaking to the paper, the residents have managed to arrange temporary connections from nearby streams. Others fetch from the nearby ponds. While they do not face much problems during the summer due to availability of stream waters, winters scare them.
“We have to fetch water to drink and do household chores from the spring. We travel for 15 minutes,” said 25-year old Ganga Devi Mongar. She fetches water in jerry cans to run her shop and feed the family. She sometimes uses the overflowing water from the flower nursery located a few meters above her shop. But in winter, water is scarce.
Likewise, Harka Maya Mongar, another resident of the town stores water for days to use during critical times. A business woman said that if a source of continuous water is provided, it would solve a great deal of pain for the people. “We have been managing and running our businesses this way. Now we hope our problem will be solved,” she said.
With the shortage of water, the people are handicapped to do agricultural works. “Forget it! We don’t even get to cook our food,” Khem Nath Sharma said. He was planning to grow a kitchen garden behind his shop, but absence of water has forced him to keep it fallow. They can manage to wash clothes at the streams. But for drinking and agriculture, a reliable source of water is yet to be established.
Water supply was provided by the gewog administration in 2016 which lasted for only two days. Darla gewog has contracted works to a private construction company to provide drinking water to Darla residents and Kesari village under the same gewog. The contractor has undertaken the work to bring water from almost 39km above Gedu town. The iron pipes running along the bazaar line is still empty. The project is worth Nu 15.6mn.
Shyam Kumar Mongar, Tabthangu Tshopga said that the water shortage has become a chronic issue in the community. “The gewog has tried its best but still we are facing a shortage,” he said.
Meanwhile, Darla Gup Mil Kumar Mongar said that the administration has asked the contractor to identify the problem and fix it immediately. He said that even the gewog administration has made numerous visits to the source with the contractor. “They have agreed to rectify and soon the problem will be resolved,” said the Gup.
Krishna Ghalley from Darla, Chhukha
