Jhapa, February 21

Managing water has been a perennial problem for some 40-odd households of Gairigaun in Chulachuli Rural Municipality, Ilam, where the only source of water is a well.

“As there is only one well for all the families, it’s very difficult to manage water,” said local Devara Limbu, who was at the well to fetch water. “As there is barely enough water even for the villagers, it’s very difficult to manage water for livestock,” said Limbu, lamenting the impact of water crisis on his occupation as a livestock farmer.

Similar is the complaint of Thagi Maya BK of Bukuwa. “We have a small well in the name of water source, and as there are no taps and drawing water from tube well is not possible here, we hardly have enough water for bathing and washing, let alone feeding the cattle,” she said, adding that water scarcity has affected sanitation as well. On his part, the rural municipality Chairperson Pradipchandra Rai acknowledged the problem and said that the rural municipality was committed to find a solution to the crisis.

“We know that there is a huge water problem but we’re exploring all options to solve the problem,” said Rai. “We’ve reckoned that drawing underground water with the use of generator could be a solution to the crisis here as this technique has been successfully used elsewhere too,” he said.