Where people have to spend six hours to get a jar of water

JAJARKOT, June 12: Though it may sound strange, it is the reality for the 30 households at Pyargara of Tribeni Nalgadh Municipality-4 in Jajarkot who have to walk for at least six hours to the nearest source of water to fetch a jar of water.

Local Sushila Karki walks for around three hours to reach the nearby water source to fill a jar of water and equal duration to return home. The water shortage has gotten so bad in the village thus forcing the people to visit Naulo to get water. On the top of that, they have to wait for their turn to fetch water.

“Neither the village nor its adjoining areas has any source of water. The Pyargara folks are forced to walk for hours to get a single jar of water and their day is spent by doing this time-consuming, uncomfortable but unavoidable work,” said a local Til Bahadur Sarki, bemoaning that no political leader or organisation has so far realised their suffering.

There will be like a melee in the Chipchipe water resource in Naulo when the people gather to collect water. “The Pyargara folks are not facing this in the recent years, they are accustomed to this daily routine since over the last 50 years,” Sarki was sharing the common experience of the Pyargara folks.

During rains, the Pyargara folks harvest rainwater and use it even knowing that to use rainwater without processing is not good for health. School age children are spending their days in collecting water from Naulo.

Pyargara that lies at an altitude of 3,000 meters above the sea level is poor in sanitation practices as well and this is all due to the acute shortage of water. Toilets built here have remained unused as people prefer open defecation in isolated and jungle areas which according to him save the water or do not ‘need’ water. Health problems like diarrhoea, dysentery and worm are common in the village.

Thought the district reports the construction of drinking waters projects at the expense of millions of rupees from the government and non-government sectors every year, Pyargara folks believe that their village has never figured in their priority. Neither the government nor the non-government bodies have taken their drinking water problem into their notice, let alone address it. RSS