Amargadhi grapples with severe water shortage

By Our Correspondent,Dadeldhura, June 16: Amargadhi has been experiencing an acute water shortage for the past three months. Areas such as Khalanga Bagbazar, Tufandanda and Kirtipur in Amarghadi Municipality-5, where the hospital, hotels, schools and all government offices are located, are facing acute water scarcity.

The Khalanga Drinking Water and Consumer Sanitation Committee, which previously supplied tap water 24 hours a day, is now providing water only once every three days. The committee is working to find new water sources, but no progress has been made yet.

This year, the water scarcity has intensified as a result of the winter drought. Starting from March/April, tap water has only been provided every three days, but accessibility varies. Residences situated on hills or elevated areas don't receive any water whatsoever.

Hospitals, hotels and the district police office are managing water through tankers. Tankers are fetching water from Asurpa Khola, Pokhara Khola and Raduwa Khola, which are about 12 kilometres away from the district headquarters. However, due to insufficient water in these rivers, it takes half a day to fill one tanker.

Dadeldhura Hospital has designated an individual to oversee the distribution of water from tankers twice a day. Dr. Santosh Gupta stated that each tanker delivers more than 4,000 liters of water, with a price of Rs. 4,000 per tanker.

The hospital has two tanks with a capacity of over 10,000 litres each. Rainwater collected in the tanks of the new hospital building is being used for toilets, he said.

Although there are no commercial water supply tankers, construction contractors tankers are currently providing water, said Jogaraj Airi, Chairman of the Khalanga Drinking Water Consumer Committee. The tankers installed on tractors can hold about 4,000 litres of water. He said that water is being supplied at Rs. 4,000 per tanker, which means it costs Rs. 100 per litre.

Drinking water was first brought to the district headquarters from the Mahabharata range in 1977. In 1997, additional water was brought from the Matre and Lamsim sources in Amarghadi-2 of the Mahabharat range. Then, under the Third Small Urban Project in 2019, taps were installed in the individual household by investing Rs. 315.6 million. Currently, there is a shortage of this water as well.

This year, the Water Supply and Sanitation Division Office allocated Rs. 20 million for establishing freshwater sources. They've already invested Rs. 15 million in purchasing pipes and constructed a tank for Rs. 2 million. However, construction hasn't commenced due to a shortage of laborers for pipe installation.