Gandaki. The watershed of the Suraudi River, which flows through parts of Kaski, Syangja and Tanahun districts of Gandaki Province, has been facing problems every year due to the lack of local bridges and the lack of control over water erosion during the rainy season.
The cultivable land around the river has become unirrigated due to the lack of use of its water, and due to the erosion caused by the river during the rainy season, there has been uncertainty every year whether or not the crops planted will be able to be brought in.
Leading farmer Ramesh Acharya said that they are facing problems as the cultivable land is becoming eroded every year due to the failure to control the erosion of the river. He lamented that the Suraudi River, which flows through the three districts of Kaski, Tanahun and Syangja, has been eroding cultivable land every year, but the state has not shown any interest in this regard.
‘There is always a concern whether the rice planted in the year will be able to be brought in in Mangsir due to the lack of erosion control,’ he said. ‘The water resources of the Suraudi River have become useless due to the lack of erosion control, and farmers have had to bear huge losses every year.’
If embankments can be built in places to control erosion, the entire Suraudi plain will be transformed into a fertile land for agricultural production, he claimed. .
If the watershed is protected and utilized, most of the cultivable land from Puri Dobhan in Syangja to Dopar, Chhahara, Chabadi in Kaski and Ghari Bagar in Tanahun can be irrigated with the water of Suraudi River and a lot of income can be earned from fishing.
Noting that suspension bridges are essential in some places here along with erosion control, Acharya said that due to the lack of bridges, people have to risk their lives to travel during the rainy season. He shared his experience that due to the lack of a suspension bridge connecting the Tikhedhunga and the watch over the Suraudi River in the watershed area, farmers and commuters in this area are forced to take risky journeys during the rainy season.
Says that this area is a valley of the locals of Dandagaun in Pokhara Metropolitan City-7 and Shuklagandaki Municipality-12 in Tanahun, Arbadi and Kharkhola areas, Acharya informed that they have to face many challenges in farming during the rainy season.
‘The fields here are also more than the river, and the people on the other side are on the other side,’ he said. ‘Due to the Suraudi River, which swells during the rainy season, farmers here have been forced to risk their lives to cross the river for years. .’
He mentioned that a suspension bridge was immediately deemed indispensable due to the necessity of walking five or seven kilometers up or down from here for a bridge to cross the river in this area. He said that in recent times, river erosion has been increasing in places including the Darangsingh area below Materah in this area.
As the land along the banks of the Suraudi River has been unused for years due to lack of watershed protection, a joint effort by all three districts of Kaski, Tanahun and Syangja is indispensable, said Ward Chairman of Pokhara Metropolitan City-33 Ram Chandra Adhikari.
Says that the first step is to demarcate the area around the river, and he informed that the lack of demarcation also poses a problem in controlling the smuggling of river-borne materials. Stating that the various possibilities of water tourism can be explored along with the development of commercial agriculture in this area, he stressed that collective efforts are needed for this.
If the Suraudi River can be utilized properly, the production along the river banks can make Kaski district completely self-reliant in agricultural production, said social worker Yam Prasad Poudel. Stating that other infrastructure development work has started gaining momentum in recent times, he informed that recently, blacktop has been done from Kadambote to the foothills under the Suraudi watershed.
He said that due to the annual change in the course of the river, many cultivable lands in the watershed have been converted into barren land for almost seven decades. Locals say that if the land along the river banks is controlled and cultivated, all kinds of products will be produced.
Recently, some leading farmers have been emphasizing vegetable farming along with commercial animal husbandry. Leading farmers Ramesh Acharya and Gyan Bahadur Karki in the Tikhedhunga area of this area have planted melons on more than 35 ropanis of land.
They said that preparations are underway to bring the melons, which are growing rapidly, to the market. The reality that young people are increasingly going abroad in search of employment has become a strong lesson for the general public around the watershed area in terms of melon farming.
They claim that if the state takes interest in controlling river erosion along with the construction of the necessary suspension bridge in the watershed area, this will be a significant achievement for economic prosperity through agricultural production and water tourism.
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