Sindhulimadi, March 27

Even as most beneficiaries have received the first installment of housing grant, many in Sindhuli still have not been able to start constructing their homes, thanks to shortage of water and skilled construction workers.

“A lot of our time and energy is consumed simply in lugging drinking water from great distances. It is next to impossible to focus on beginning construction work, which also takes a lot of time and energy,” said Bheshraj Dahal of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality.

“To add to that, thousands of quake victims in Mahabharat and Sunkoshi have not been able to start construction of their houses because of a dearth of construction workers qualified to build houses according to the government-prescribed guidelines.”

Dahal said further, “If we had motorable roads, we might have ferried water on vehicles, but we don’t.”

Dahal added that they will have to wait for the monsoons for drinking water taps to run.

The taps in the village are dry most of the year, only functioning for three to four months during the monsoon season.

Other places like Kamalamai Municipality, and Marin, Fikkal, Tinpatan sand Golanjor rural municipalities also face the same problems.

A source said that as many as 9,000 quake victims have been affected by lack of water and qualified manpower across the district.

“Not a single person has started house construction in our village,” said Nirmal Kumar Ramtel, a local of Golanjor Rural Municipality.

Meanwhile, the District Drinking Water and Sanitation Division Office attributed the lack of water to the damage to more than 200 water sources in the district due to the earthquake.