Jajarkot, October 21

Residents of Chaulechaur and Sanawal villages in Nalgad Municipality-3, Jajarkot, are compelled to drink contaminated river water after the local water projects were damaged by the monsoon floods and landslides this year.

A number of drinking water projects, including Mul Drinking Water Project, Nayan Kholi Drinking Water Project, Bagarchhana Drinking Water Project and Nahakuli Irrigation and Drinking Water Project were damaged by the floods and landslides. The floods have damaged the pipeline and water tanks.

“As it’s been around two months since our taps went dry and nothing has so far been done to repair the damaged water projects, what else would we do other than fetch drinking water from the nearby river?” asked a local Janak Bahadur Pun of Chaulechaur.

“As people are using contaminated water from the river, cases of diarrhoea, common cold and dysentery are being reported in the villages of late,” Pun said, adding around 100 households in the two villages are affected by lack of safe drinking water. Locals here lamented that the authorities concerned had turned a blind eye to their problems.

Another local Mishri Bahadur Poudel of Sanawal said he had to fetch water from the local river every day. “The dysfunctional water projects have not only created water scarcity, but also hampered my children’s studies as they had to spend most of their time fetching water from the river.”