सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Siraha. Sushila Sadaya of Malanha, Lahan Municipality-24, still has the bitter experience of drinking dirty water from a well six months ago.
During the winter, people from all over the village were forced to share the dirty water from the same well, which was scarce. On top of that, she still hasn’t forgotten the problem of children falling ill.
The water from the well had to be used for drinking, bathing, washing clothes, and other purposes. The collective well of the Dalit settlement, used by about 17 households, is located next to the road.
The painful struggle of staying awake all night in the scorching heat of April-June to get a single glass of water was a distant memory for Sushila. However, since last April, she has not been able to get rid of the drinking water problem that she has been facing for years, even after she installed a tap from the Nepal Water Supply Corporation’s Lahan branch.
‘There is no longer a water problem. Since we installed a tap at home, we have been able to use clean and pure water whenever we want. We have been freed from the compulsion to drink a handful of murky water,’ said Sushila, ‘Children are not as sick as before. Water is the main cause of everything. We experienced it before, but now we finally understand it.’
She said that she will grow vegetables and fruits in the garden using the water wasted from the tap. 17 Dalit households in the village have now installed taps. Similarly, Lilamdevi Saday of Sundarpur, Lahan Municipality-4, also had to suffer a lot due to water shortage like Sushila. But now she has connected a drinking water tap.
She has been freed from the compulsion to go to the nearby Balan River to wash dishes due to water shortage. She has been happy since the tap was installed in her own house. ‘I have not wasted water remembering the previous sorrow. May the water always be like this,’ she said.
Like Lilamdevi and Sushiladevi, housewives in Lahan Municipality, especially, are happy to have the facility of drinking water. In this way, the municipality, the drinking water corporation and NGOs have played an important role in the smooth expansion of drinking water services in the villages and settlements of Lahan.
As the groundwater sources in this urban area connected to the Chure started drying up, the locals here were in search of a sustainable solution to the shortage of drinking water recently.
At that time, the BIKAN project was launched in 2018 with the support of the NGO ‘Water Aid’ Nepal and the joint partnership of Lahan Municipality, Dalit Jan Kalyan Youth Club Lahan and Nepal Drinking Water Corporation Lahan Branch.
Until a few years ago, only a limited number of people were found to have taps installed sporadically, but after the project was launched, the number of people connecting taps has increased significantly.
Due to lack of public awareness among the locals, the practice of drawing water from wells and feeding the same water to livestock is widespread, says Rajesh Kumar Lohani, Bikan Project Program Manager of Dalit Jankalyan Youth Club.
He said, ‘At that time, taps were connected only in the main urban areas. People did not even think of paying money to connect taps in villages. Most citizens were dependent on wells, wells, and taps.’
He said that after the project, the number of service recipients who have connected taps has been increasing due to the activities of local organizations and stakeholders. According to Lattu Yadav, Head of the Water Distribution Branch of the Nepal Water Supply Corporation, Lahan Branch Office, 5,319 taps have been connected in the urban area so far.
Out of these, 1,229 Dalit families have connected taps. So far, 115 kilometers of drinking water pipeline have been extended to various wards of the city.
According to Chief Yadav, only about 2,000 drinking water taps were connected to the local drinking water corporation, which has been operating since 2056 BS, before the Bikan project started six years ago.
According to him, it costs Rs 6,390 for a person with a red certificate to connect a tap. In which, Rs 3,000 is a deposit, Rs 3,220 is revenue, Rs 40 is a drinking water card, application fee of Rs 20 and the minimum fee of Rs 120 for the first month.
Landless squatters without land titles are charged Rs 10,110 as a deposit, revenue and card. Service recipients receive 10,000 liters of water for a minimum of Rs 120. After that, it costs Rs 25 per unit. One unit contains 1,000 liters of water.
Grants to Dalit communities
There are statistics that there are about 20,000 landless Dalit communities in Lahan Municipality. They do not have land titles for their houses.
Therefore, a joint grant from the municipality and the organization has been provided to them. The municipality has provided Rs. 3,720 and the project has provided Rs. 3,270 for the connection of taps.
Therefore, the Dalit community here only needs to pay Rs. 3,120 for the connection of taps. Similarly, the ward office of the municipality has provided support to the Dalit community in Wards No. 2, 7 and 14 to connect taps.
63 houses in Ward No. 2, 28 houses in Ward No. 7 and 63 Dalit households in Ward No. 14 have had taps connected free of charge with the financial support of the ward. The project has also provided them with tap materials.
Expansion of drinking water area
Lahan Municipality has a total of 24 wards. According to Yadav, Head of Drinking Water Distribution Branch, for about two decades before the Bikan project was launched, the Drinking Water Corporation was working only in Ward No. 1 to 10.
Currently, the drinking water pipeline and tap connection have been expanded in Ward No. 13, 14, 16 and 24. According to him, the drinking water service will be expanded in all 24 wards as per the demand for taps. Of which, the latest service has been expanded in Ward No. 24.
Ward No. 24 is also a ward with a large number of farmers. Ward Chairman Rashlal Rai says that the vegetables produced by the farmers here meet about 70 percent of the city’s demand.
He says that the project implemented in this ward connected to Chure has been very effective as the water crisis deepens. He said, “Perhaps this would not have been possible if the Bikan project had not come. Now no citizen in the ward has to live in a shortage of drinking water.”
Lahan Municipality Mayor Mahesh Prasad Chaudhary said that the problem of the locals here has been solved through the project implemented in collaboration with the Drinking Water Corporation. Mayor Chaudhary informed that the project is being supported by the Ministry of Water Supply and the Water Supply Corporation, and work is being done with the goal of providing clean drinking water to all homes in Lahan by 2030 through this project.
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