Galkot. The beautiful village of Arnakot, located at the head of Nisikhola in Baglung, is rich in natural beauty. This naturally beautiful village has a major problem with drinking water. The locals have been facing drinking water problems for years.
The residents of Arnakot are forced to leave the village due to lack of drinking water. Arnakot, located in the high part of the Nisikhola Rural Municipality-2 Devisthan, is considered an important religious destination from a tourist perspective. Locals complain that even two jugs of water hardly come from the drinking water tap during winter.
Although attempts have been made to distribute drinking water through the lift project in Arnakot to solve the drinking water problem, the project has not been able to quench the thirst for water. Local Chhalbir BK complained that there is a shortage of drinking water in Arnakot during the monsoon.
‘There is a big problem with drinking water, how can two jugs of water last all day? Drinking water is not enough for sanitation and animal husbandry,’ said 81-year-old BK. ‘Because of the water, we cannot even sleep on time. Those who can have left the village and entered the city, we could not leave the village, we did not even get to see that there is ample drinking water as long as we live.’
Like Chhalbir, Narmati Rasaili’s daily life is spent collecting water. She said that she goes to the source of the Basantdhara in Dhorpatan Municipality-5 in the neighboring municipality to fetch drinking water. “One or two jugs of water never come, we have to walk for an hour to carry water, even though the old taps are always full during the rainy season, it is even more difficult in the winter,” said Narmati.
Although the water was brought to Arnakot using lifting technology a few years ago, it has repeatedly broken down and caused problems. Local Om Bahadur Rasaili said that the number of people migrating from Arnakot is increasing every day as the source of the drinking water project brought in 2047 BS dries up.
He said that although it seems possible to bring water from the nearby Patihalne of Nisikhola, there is a lack of budget. There are about 400 households in the Arnakot area, which falls under Dhorpatan Municipality-5 and Nisikhola-2. There is a shortage of drinking water in all homes.
Ishwor Sirpali, principal of Arnakot Secondary School, said that the compulsion to procure water is affecting teaching and learning. He said that due to the lack of sufficient water in the school, children have not been able to arrange drinking water, and sanitation and health activities have also been affected.
Speaking that Arnakot, which is located in the highlands, is facing a shortage of drinking water, ward chairman Kubir Bishwakarma said that there is a lack of water sources. ‘There is no water source nearby in Arnakot settlement, the small sources that exist have dried up, and the lift project has not been sustainable,’ he said. ‘A lot of budget is needed to bring water to Arnakot from the source that is far from the settlement, which is not possible from the ward, budget is being demanded from the provincial and federal governments through the municipality.’
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