Bajura, November 25

Over 400 households and livestock in the four wards at Badhu VDC of Bajura have been deeply affected by severe water shortage.

Purna Sarki, a local, complained that over 400 families were having a hard time as all water sources had long dried up except for a single tap in the village. “In recent times, residents of all four wards have been thronging this single source,” Sarki said, “We have to wait long hours in a queue for a single pitcher of water.”

Locals from wards no 2,3,4 and 5 queue for a whole day to fill their pitchers. “Even then, it is not clean water they get,” Laxmi Nepali bemoaned.

Ratna Rokaya, another local, complained that at least two members of a family were required to spend an entire day due to the distance and the time it took to fetch water. The only running single water source is a five-hour walk from the village.

Health workers at Badhu Health Post said locals were suffering from various health problems due to consumption of contaminated water.

District Drinking Water and Sanitation Office Bajura had constructed Gadekhola Drinking Water Project at a cost of Rs 4.8 million nearly six years ago. While the project is almost complete, it has not been able to supply water to the locals.

Mangal Bahadur Malla, a CPN-UML cadre, said that while the water tank and taps were in place, the project had not been able to supply water.

Project Chairman Gajnedra Malla, however, claimed that locals’ non-cooperation and budget crunch had left the project in the state of limbo.