BAJURA, JUNE 11
Remote as they are in terms of the distance from the district headquarters, the four 'remote' villages in Bajura boast an amenity that even some most accessible places often lack. Swamikartik Khapar Rural Municipality's Chhapu and Jera villages and Gaumul Rural Municipality's Amlis and Majhapali villages have been linked to drinking water facility lately.
Every house in these villages have now running tap water, courtesy of the joint effort of different agencies, including the government of Finland and European Union.
Besides the international partners, the rural municipalities concerned and government's RVWRMP-III project have also collaborated, while locals have chipped in with free labour. Now that the households have running water at their home itself, it has saved them from the plight of having to walk a long distance every day to fetch the vital commodity.
"Some 77 taps have been built and are running now in Chhapu village in Ward 4.
While the 75 houses there have got one tap each, taps have also been built at two government offices," said Khalukhore Private Tap Drinking Water and Sanitation Project Chairperson Akkal Nath Yogi, adding that extra 199 taps had been built in Jera village in Ward 5 of the same local level.
Similarly, in Gaumul Rural Municipality, taps have been built at 54 houses in Amlis village in Gaumul Rural Municipality-1 and 48 in Majhpali village in Gaumu-3. According to RVWRMP technician Tej Bahadur Bohora, the newly installed taps have saved local's time which they would have to spent in fetching water otherwise.
Easy availability of water has also improved sanitation condition in the villages.
"Though people had latrines, they were useless earlier for want of water. Now that there is water, people have started using latrines, which has improved the sanitation situation," said Gaumul RM Chair Hari Bahadur Rokaya.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 12, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
