Face acute shortage of drinking water

Kathmandu, January 24:

A total number of 300 household of squatters taking shelter at river banks of the Bagmati, nearby the UN Park at Thapathali are in a miserable condition these days.

The squatters are trying to construct temporary huts on the river banks with bamboos and plastics. They neither have clean drinking water nor a warm place to sleep. They have complained that the officers from Kathmandu Metropolitan City burnt their huts.

Bimala Tamang, 52, said, “We are compelled to spend the whole day and night, shivering in the cold. I could not go for the work today as I have fever due to yesterday’s cold.”

She said that every time when they build huts, the officers from municipality destroys them and they have to rebuild it again. She said, “It takes Rs 150 to buy the bamboos and Rs 100 for a kg of plastic to build the house. Now, who is going to pay us the compensation for the harm they have brought by destroying our huts?” Out of 300 huts, only fifty huts have been built and the remaining is yet to be build due to the fund crunch.

Squatters are worried about their children’s future too. Amriti Devi Mukhiya, 60, mother of three sons said, “Our kids are begging in the streets to meet the ends when other children of their age are going to school.” Cursing oneself for such poverty, she said, “Poverty has ruined our life as well as our children’s future.”

Dhan Bahadur Gurung, coordinator of Thapathali Settlement Unit under Nepal Sukumbasi Samrakshan tatha Sambardhan Sangh (NSSSS) said that the NSSSS had already submitted 14-point demands to all ministries as well as to the Speaker of the parliament but yet there has not been any improvement in the living conditions of the squatters .

The NSSSS have been demanding for food, shelter and clothing for the squatters. He said, “The real squatters should be identified and should be provided with an identity card,” adding, “The government should immediately take steps to sort out the squatters problem.”

The squatters are also demanding voting rights, free health check-up, quota in the government industrial enterprises and the allocation of budget from each ministry for their development.